RLvlSED EDITION 



..iiiiia 




Glass. 
Book. 



e^q 






ALLYN AND BACON'S SERIES OF SCHOOL HISTORIES 

THE 

ANCIENT WORLD 

FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 800 A.D. 

BY 

WIL-LIS MASON WEST 

SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND HEAD OF THE 
DEPARTMENT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 



REVISED EDITION 



ALLYN AND BACON 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS 



1)5^ 






O^ 



3 



COPYRIGHT, 1904 AND 19SS, 
BY WILLIS MASON WEST. 



BAI 






J. S. Gushing C'o. — Berwick & Smith Co, 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



FOREWORD 

My Ancient World appeared nine years ago. The generous 
welcome given to it necessitates new plates ; and I have taken 
advantage of the opportunity to rewrite the book. 

In the nine years, my own interest has shifted from political 
history to industrial history. This change, I believe, has been 
general ; and I trust that teachers will approve the correspond- 
ing change in the book. Less space is given to "constitu- 
tions," and more to industrial and economic development and 
to home life. Many generalizations, too, are omitted, to make 
room for more narrative ; and the publication of Dr. Davis' 
Readings'^ makes it advisable to omit most of the '^illustrative 
extracts " of the old volume, except where they can be easily 
woven into the story. 

The Readings is accountable for another modification here. 
That volume presents much of the story of the ancient peoples, 
as they themselves told it, in so simple and charming a manner 
as to make the best possible collateral reading. Every high 
school pupil, I feel, should own the book, or at least have easy 
access to copies on reference shelves.^ Other library reference 
in this book has been reduced, accordingly, to a minimum. 

In the Ancient World I ventured to present views of the 
" Mycenaeans " and " Achaeans," which at that time were per- 
haps somewhat radical for an elementary text. Subsequent 
discoveries, however, have fully confirmed them, and have also 
opened up a new and intensely interesting chapter of an earlier 
Aegean world, besides adding much to our knowledge in other 
fields of ancient history. These new results I am glad to have 
a chance to incorporate here. 

It is doubtful if a textbook of this sort should give room to 

1 William Stearns T)2i,Y\s, Readings in Ancient History. Two volumes: 
" Greece and the East," and "Rome and the West." Each $ 1.00. Allyn and 
Bacon. 

2 This view, together with the plan of library work for this volume, is ex« 
plained more fully on page 9. 

iii 



iv FOREWORD 

any incident which the student cannot articulate with the life 
of to-day — or which is not essential to understanding the evolu- 
tion of important conditions which can be so articulated. This 
principle has not been adhered to so rigidly as to forbid inclu- 
sion of stories of universal human interest, independent of 
time ; but it has led to the omission of many names and events 
commonly found in such a textbook, and it also explains the 
various references to present-day conditions. For allied rea- 
sons, too, I have retained the emphasis of the former volume 
upon the Hellenistic world and the Eoman imperial world — 
on which our modern life is so directly based — at some cost 
to the legendary periods of Greece and Rome. 

Perhaps the most fundamental change is yet to be men- 
tioned. My first book in this field — the Ancient History, 
of twelve years ago — was designed avowedly both for high 
schools and for "more advanced" students. Something of 
the same sort lingered in the Ayicient World, the successor of 
that first volume. But in writing the present book I have 
kept steadily in mind the first-year high-school pupil. 

Several new maps have been added ; and the numerous old 
ones have been made more serviceable for teaching, and have 
been carefully adapted to the new text. The maps for " gen- 
eral reference," however, still contain a few names not used in 
the text, to assist the student in his outside reading. Through 
the generosity of the publishers, the book has been enriched 
with many new illustrations, which, in numerous cases, give 
emphasis to industrial and social life. 

It is impossible to catalogue here all the friends who have 
contributed to making this volume better than the author 
alone could have made it. But I must at least take space to 
acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. AVilliam Stearns Davis. 
Dr. Davis has read the complete book in proof sheets. To his 
scholarship I owe the avoidance of various errors, and to his 
fine dramatic sense the inclusion of some striking incidents. 



WILLIS MASON WEST. 



WiNDAGo Farm, 
May, 1913, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGB 

List of Illustrations v" 

List of Maps and Plans xiii 

Introduction : The Part of Man's Life to Study ... 1 



I. 

II. 
III. 
IV. 

V. 
VI. 



PART I — THE ORIENTAL PEOPLES 

Preliminary Survey H 

Egypt. '15 

The Tigris-Euplirates States 50 

The Middle States — Phoenicians and Hebrews . 72 

The Persian Empire 82 

Summary of Oriental Civilization . . . „ . 92 



PART II — THE GREEKS 

VII. The Influence of Geography 

VIII. How we know about Prehistoric Hellas 

IX. The First (Cretan) Civilization . 

X. The Homeric Age .... 

XI. From the Achaeans to the Persian Wars 

XII. The Persian Wars .... 

XIII. Athenian Leadership : The Age of Pericles 

XIV. Life in the Age of Pericles . 
XV. The Peloponnesian War . 

XVI. From the Fall of Athens to the Fall of Hellas, 404-338 



PART III — THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD 

XVII. Mingling of East and West — Alexander and his Conquests 
XVIII. The Widespread Hellenistic World 



95 
101 
107 
116 
126 
163 
187 
230 
242 
250 



263 
273 



VI 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAKT IV — ROME 

CHAPTER PAOB 

XIX. The Place of Rome in History 297 

XX. The Land and the Peoples 300 

XXI. Legendary History 307 

XXII. Conclusions about Rome under the Kings . . . 311 

XXIII. Class Struggles in the Republic, 510-367 . . .323 

XXIV. The Unification of Italy, 367-266 333 

XXV. United Italy under Roman Rule ..... 339 

XXVI. Government of the Republic 347 

XXVII. The Army .353 

XXVIII. Roman Society, 367-200 b.c. 357 

XXIX. The Winning of the West, 264-146 B.C. . . .363 

XXX. The West from 200 to 146 b.c 382 

XXXI. The Winning of the East, 201-146 b.c. . . .387 

XXXII. New Strife of Classes, 146-49 b.c 399 

XXXIII. The Gracchi 419 

XXXIV. Military Rule : Marius and Sulla 428 

XXXV. Pompey and Caesar , 437 



XXXVI. 
XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLL 

XLII. 



PART V — THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

Founding the Empire : Julius and Augustus . . 445 
The Empire of the First Two Centuries : Story of the 

Emperors 465 

The Empire of the First Two Centuries : Topical 

Survey 481 

The Decline in the Third Century . . . .526 

The Rise of Christianity 533 

Fourth Century : Story of the Emperors . . . 541 

Fourth Century : Topical Survey 656 



PART VI— ROMANO-TEUTONIC EUROPE 



XLIII. The Teutons 

XLIV. The Wandering of the Peoples, 376-665 a.d 

XLV. The " Dark Ages " .... 

XL VI. Western Europe, 600-768 a.d. . 

XL VII. The Empire of Charlemagne 



570 
576 
596 
608 
624 



Appendix : A Classified List of Selected Books for a High School 

Library in History 637 



Index, Pronouncing Vocabulary, and Map References . 



643 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

'^ PAOB 

1. Reindeer, drawn by Cave-men in France and in Switzerland . 2 

2. Prehistoric Stone Daggers from Scandinavia 

3. Series of Axes ; Old Stone, New Stone, and Bronze Ages 

4. Some Stages in Fire-making. From Tylor 
6. Portion of tlie Rosetta Stone, containing the hieroglyphs first 

deciphered 

6. Part of the Rosetta Inscription, on a larger scale 

7. Photograph of Modern Egyptian sitting by a Sculptured Head 

of an Ancient King ; to show likeness of feature . 

8. Boatmen fighting on the Nile. Egyptian relief . 

9. A Capital from Karnak. From Lubke 

10. Portrait Statue of Amten, a self-made noble of 3200 b.c 

11. Egyptian Noble hunting Waterfowl on the Nile. After Maspero 

12. Levying the Tax. Egyptian relief, from Maspero 

13. Egyptian Plow. From Rawlinson 

14. Market Scene. An Egyptian relief . 

15. Shoemakers. Egyptian relief, from Maspero 

16. Sphinx and Pyramids. From a photograph 

17. Vertical Section of the Great Pyramid 

18. Ra-Hotep ; perhaps the oldest portrait statue in existence 

19. Princess Nefert ; a portrait statue 5000 years old 

20. Temple of Edfu 

21. A Relief from the Temple of Hathor at Dendera 

22. Egyptian Numerals 

23. Isis and Horus 

24. Sculptured Funeral Couch ; picturing the soul crouching by the 

mummy ...••••• 

25. A Tomb Painting ; showing offerings to the dead 

vii 



3 
4 
6 

12 
12 

17 
18 
20 
22 
23 
25 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
34 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 

39 
40 



VIU 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



IS and the 



later 



26. Weighing the Soul before the Judges of the Dead. Egyptian 

relief ...... 

27. Cheops (Khufu). A portrait statue . 

28. Sculptors at Work. An Egyptian relief 

29. Thutmosis III 

30. Rameses II 

31. Psammeticlms in Hieroglyphs 

32. Neeo in Hieroglyphs .... 

33. Nebuchadnezzar in Cuneiform (liaracters 

34. Colossal Man-beast, from the Palace of Sargon 

35. Assyrian Contract Tablet in Duplicate 

36. Assyrian Tablets ; showing the older hierogiypl: 

cuneiform equivalents in parallel columns 

37. An Assyrian "Book" 

38. An Assyrian Dog, A relief on a clay tablet 

39. Assyrian " Deluge Tablet " 

40. Assyrian Cylinder Seals 

41. Impression from a Royal Seal . 

42. A Lion Hunt. An Assyrian relief 

43. Section of the Temple of the Seven 

"restoration" by Rawlinson . 

44. Parts of Alphabets 

45. Growth of the Letter A 

46. Jerusalem To-day, with the road to Bethlehem 

47. Impression from a Persian Cylinder Seal . 

48. Persian Queen. A fragment of a bronze statue 

49. Persian Bronze Lion, at Susa 

50. Persian Jewelry 

51. Scene in the Vale of Tempe. From a photograph 

52. Bronze Dagger from Mycenae, inlaid with gold 

53. The Gate of the Lions at Mycenae 

54. Mouth of the Palace Sewer at Knossos, 2200 b 

cotta drain pipes. From Baikie 

55. Head of a Bull. From a relief at Knosso 
66. The Vaphio Cups, of 1800 or 2000 b.c. 



Spheres ; 



.0., with 



according 



to a 



terra 



41 
43 
44 

46 
47 

48 
48 
58 
59 
60 

61 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
68 

69 
74 
74 

80 
85 
87 
89 
92 
99 
104 
105 

106 
107 
108 



ILLUSTRATIONS fx 

PAGK 

57. Scroll from the Vaphio Cups, showing stages in netting and 

taming wild bulls. From Perrot and Chipiez . . . 109 

58. Vase from Knossos (about 2200 b.c), with sea-life ornament . 110 
69. Cretan Writing Ill 

60. " Throne of Minos." From Baikie 112 

61. Cooking Utensils ; found in one tomb at Knossos . . . 113 

62. Cretan Vase of Late Period (1600 b.c), with conventionaUzed 

ornament 114 

63. Ruins of the Entrance to the Stadium at Olympia . 129 

64. Ruins of Athletic Field at Delphi 133 

65. Greek Soldier 144 

66. Ground Plan of Temple of Theseus at Athens .... 154 

67. Doric Column, with explanations. From the Temple of The- 

seus 156 

68. Ionic Column 155 

69. Corinthian Column 155 

70. A Doric Capital. From a photograph of a detail of the Par- 

thenon 156 

71. West Front of the Parthenon To-day ; to illustrate Doric style 158 

72. West Front of Temple of Victory at Athens ; to illustrate Ionic 

style 159 

73. Marathon To-day. From a photograph ..... 171 

74. Thermopylae. From a photograph 178 

75. The Bay of Salamis. From a photograph .... 181 

76. Pericles, A portrait bust ; now in the Vatican . . . 196 

77. Side View of a Trireme. From an Athenian relief . . . 197 

78. The Acropolis To-day 210 

79. Propylaea of the Acropolis To-day . , . . . 211 

80. Erechtheum and Parthenon . 212 

81. Figures from the Parthenon Frieze .... . 213 

82. Sophocles. A portrait statue, now in the Lateran . . . 214 

83. Theater of Dionysus at Athens 215 

84. Thucydides. A portrait bust; now in the Capitoline Museum 217 

85. The Acropolis as " restored " by Lambert .... 221 

86. Women at their Toilet. Two parts of a vase painting . . 224 



X ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



87. Greek Women at their Music. From a vase painting . , 225 

88. The Disk Thrower. After Myron ; now in the Vatican . . 226 

89. A Satyr, by Praxiteles. (Hawthorne's " Marble Faun ") . 227 

90. Plan of a Fifth-century Delos House. After Gardiner and 

Jevons 231 

91. Greek Girls at Play. From a vase painting .... 233 

92. A Vase Painting showing Paris enticing away Helen . . 234 

93. Greek Women, in various activities. A vase painting . . 236 

94. A Barber in Terra-cotta. From Bliimner .... 237 

95. The Wrestlers 238 

96. School Scenes. A bowl painting 240 

97. Route of the Long Walls of Athens. From a recent photo- 

graph 248 

98. The Hermes of Praxiteles . 254 

99. Philip II of Macedon. From a gold medallion struck by Alex- 

ander 260 

100. Alexander. From a gold medallion of Tarsus . . . 264 

101. Alexander in a Lion-hunt. Reverse side of the above . . 264 

102. Alexander. The Copenhagen head . . . . . = 265 

103. Alexander as Apollo. Now in the Capitoline .... 269 

104. The Dying Gaul 274 

105. Pylon of Ptolemy 111 at Karnak 276 

106. Venus of Melos. Now in the Louvre 288 

107. The Laocoon Group 290 

108. Julius Caesar, The British Museum bust .... 296 

109. Remains of an Etruscan Wall and Arch at Sutri . . . 302 

110. Etruscan Tombs at Orvieto 803 

111. So-called Wall of Servius 312 

112. Cloaca Maxima 313 

113. An Early Roman Coin (Janus and a ship's prow) . . . 315 

114. Bridge over the Anio . 326 

115. A Coin showing the City Seal of Syracuse .... 334 

116. A Coin of Syracuse about 400 b.c 334 

117. A Coin of Pyrrhus ... 337 



ILLUSTRATIONS XI 



PAGE 



118. A Coin of Pyrrhus struck in Sicily 337 

119. The Appian Way, witli the Aqueduct of Claudius in the Back- 

ground 344 

120. Head of a Javelin . „ . 353 

121. A Roman Boxing Match ....... c 361 

122. A Coin of Hiero II of Syracuse 366 

123. Ruins at Corinth 393 

124. The House of M. Olconius at Pompeii ..... 404 

125. A Court in a Pompeian House (House of the Vettii) . . 407 

126. An Excavated Street in Pompeii ...... 412 

127. Temple of Apollo at Pompeii ....... 425 

128. A Theater at Pompeii 430 

129. A Coin of Mithridates VI . . . . . . . .433 

130. Sulla. A portrait bust ........ 434 

131. Cicero. A portrait bust ...,..». 440 

132. Pompey. The Copenhagen bust ....<.. 448 

133. Julius Caesar. The Naples Bust , . . « , . 449 

134. The Forum at Pompeii .., ^ .... 450 

135. The Roman Forum, looking south . „ « , . . 453 

136. The Roman Forum, looking north ....„, 454 

137. Marcus Brutus. A bust now in the Capitoline Museum . . 455 

138. Octavius Caesar as a Boy 458 

139. Augustus. The Vatican statue . . c - . . 461 

140. Bridge at Rimini built by Augustus . . ... 462 

141. Church of the Nativity . 464 

142. A Gold Coin of Augustus 466 

143. Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct. From a photograph . . 468 

144. A Bronze Coin of Nero 469 

145. Agrippina, Mother of Nero 470 

146. The Coliseum To-day 471 

147. Detail from the Arch of Titus 472 

148. A Coin of Domitian . 474 

149. Temple of Zeus at Athens, built by Hadrian . » » .476 

150. The Tomb of Hadrian 477 



xii ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGjii 

151. Marcus Aurelius. An equestrian statue . . o . . 478 

152. Head of Commodus. From a coin .... . . 479 

153. Interior of the Coliseum To-day 483 

154. A German Bodyguard : a detail from the column of Marcus 

Aurelius 487 

155. Part of the Aqueduct of Claudius, built into a modern wall . 490 

156. Aqueduct near Nimes, built by Antoninus Pius . » . 493 

157. A City Gate at Pompeii 496 

158. Palace of the Roman Emperors at Trier 504 

159. The Black Gate at Trier 505 

160. The Pantheon 508 

161. A Section of the Pantheon ..... c . 508 

162. The Coliseum, seen through the Arch of Titus . o . 509 

163. Trajan's Column o . 510 

164. General Plan of Basilicas » . 511 

165. Trajan's Basilica, " restored " by Canina .... 511 

166. The Arch of Titus 514 

167. Trajan's Arch, at Beneventum 515 

168. The Way of Tombs at Pompeii . . . . . .517 

169. Detail from Trajan's Column, showing the famous bridge over 

the Danube 522 

170. Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian 642 

171. Hall of the Baths of Diocletian : now the Church of St. Mary 

of the Angels 547 

172. The Milvian Bridge To-day . . . . . . .549 

173. The Arch of Constantine 552 

174. Church of San Vitale at Ravenna 587 

175. A Gold Coin of Theodosius II, showing Byzantine character- 

istics 588 

176. The Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna 600 

177. The Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem 613 

178. The Damascus Gate at Jerusalem 616 

179. A Silver Coin of Charlemagne . 625 

180. Throne of Charlemagne at Aachen .... .631 

181. Cathedral of Aachen ; the " Carolingian part " . , 633 



MAPS AND PLANS 



PAGE 



L The Field of Ancient History « 

2. The First Homes of Civilization. Full page, colored after 12 

3. Ancient Egypt ^^ 

4. Egyptian Empire at its Greatest Extent 45 

6. Assyrian and Babylonian Empire ^^ 

6. Syria, showing Dominion of Solomon and Other Features of 

Hebrew History '^'^ 

^ Lydia, Media, Egypt, and Babylonia, about 660 b.c. Full page, 

colored «/««»' 82 

8. The Persian Empire. Full page, colored . . . after 84 

9. Greece and the Adjoining Coasts. Double page, colored after 94 

10. The Greek Peninsula. Double page, colored . . after 98 

11. The Greek World. (For general reference.) Double page, 

colored «/««»• 132 

12. Peloponnesian League 1^^ 

13. Plan of Marathon . ^"^^ 

14. Attica, with reference to Marathon and Salamis . • .180 
16. Athens and its Ports, showing the " Long Walls'' . . .189 

16. Athenian Empire. Full page, colored . . . after 198 

17. Plan of Athens 202 

18. The Acropolis at Athens 209 

19. Greece at the Beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Full page, 

colored «/^«^ 246 

20. Plan of the Battle of Leuctra . . . • • • .256 

21. Greece under Theban Supremacy. Full page, colored after 268 

22. The Growth of Macedonia ....•••• 261 
23 Campaigns and Empire of Alexander the Great. Full page, 

colored .... = »•• ^/^e*- 266 

24. The Achaean and Aetolian Leagues 283 

26, The World according to Eratosthenes 293 

xiii 



xiv MAPS AND PLANS 



PAGE 



304 
305 
311 

348 
355 



26. Italy. (For general reference.) Full page, colored after 302 

27. The Peoples of Italy ... 

28. Rome and Vicinity ... 

29. Rome under the Kings 

30. Italy about 200 b.c. ; Roads and Colonies 

31. Plan of a Roman Camp 

32. Rome and Carthage at the Opening of the First Punic War . 364 

33. The Mediterranean Lands at the Opening of the Second Punic 

War. Double page, colored .... after 372 

34. Roman Dominions and Dependencies in 146 b.c. . . . 395 

35. Vicinity of the Bay of Naples . 473 

36. The Roman Empire at its Greatest Extent, showing Stages of 

Growth. Double page, colored .... after 488 

37. Rome under the Empire 529 

38. The Roman Empire divided into Prefectures and Dioceses. 

Double page, colored ...... after 544 

39. The Rhine-Danube Frontier before the Great Migrations. Full 

page ......••••• 572 

40. The Migrations. Double page, colored . . . after 576 

41. Europe in the Reign of Theodoric (500 a.d.). Full page, 

colored. ........ after 586 

42. Europe at the Death of Justinian (565 a.d.). Full page, colored 

after 590 

43. Germanic Kingdoms on Roman Soil at the Close of the Sixth 

Century. Double page, colored .... after 594 

44. Kingdom of the Merovingians. Full page, colored . . after 608 

45. Europe at the End of the Seventh Century. Full page, colored 

after 622 

46. Europe in the Time of Charles the Great. Double page, colored 

after 630 



PART I 

Greece and the East 



THE ANCIENT WORLD 

INTRODUCTION 

THE PART OF MAN'S LIFE TO STUDY 

Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. 

— Tennyson. 

1. The first men had no history. They lived a savage life, 
more backward and helpless than the lowest savages in the 
world to-day. They had not even fire, or knife, or bow and 
arrow. In thoughts and acts they were primitive; and in 
brain power they were only a little above the beasts about 
them. Their chief desires were to satisfy hunger, to keep 
warm, and to outwit more powerful animals. Through thou- 
sands on thousands of years, man has been lifting himself from 
this earliest savagery to our many-sided civilization. 

Civilization is the opposite of savagery. To raise regular food crops, 
instead of depending upon hunting and fishing or upon nuts and wild 
rice, was a great step toward civilization. To learn to use oar and sail, 
to work mines, to build roads and canals, to exchange the products of 
one region for those of another, to invent tools and machinery — the spin- 
ning wheel, the threshing machine, the locomotive, the dynamo — all 
these things were steps. But civilization includes more than these 
material gains : it includes all improvements that make men better and 
happier. It has to do with mental growth, with art, literature, man- 
ners, morals, home life, religion, laws, education. The civilization of a 
people is the sum of its advances in all these lines, material, intellectuals 
and moral. 

I 



PREHISTORIC AGES 



[§1 



The first steps upward were probably the slowest and most 
stumbling. We know little about them. No people leaves 
written records until it has advanced a long way from primi- 
tive savagery. And so we cannot tell just how men came to 
invent the bow, or how they came to use stone heads for their 
arrows, and stone knives, and stone axes ; or how they found 
a way to make fire, and to bake clay pots in which to cook 
food ; or how they tamed the dog and cow ; or how they 
learned to live together in families and tribes. These precious 




Reindeer, by Cave-Dwellers (Old Stone Age). 
On slate, in France. On horn, in Switzerland. 

(For some thousands of years, the reindeer has been extinct in these countries. 
Compare these drawings with modern pictures for accuracy of detail ; and note 
the remarkable spitit and action depicted by the prehistoric artists.) 



beginnings were doubtless found and lost and found again 
many times in different regions; but before history begins 
anywhere, they had become the common property of many 
races. 

However, though we shall never know the full story of these 
gains, we do know something of the order in which they came 
about. Embedded in the soil, sometimes many feet below the 
present surface, there are found relics of early man, — tools, 
weapons, drawings on ivory tusks, and the bones of animals 
which he ate or by which he was eaten.^ Sometimes such re- 

1 Some of these companions of early man are now wholly extinct, like the 
huge mammoth, the fierce cave-bear, and the terrible saber-toothed tiger. 
Geologists, however, find skeletons of these animals, corresponding closelj 
with the drawings of prehistoric artists. 



§2] 



STEPS IN PROGRESS 



mains are found in caves, where primitive man made his home; 
sometimes, in refuse heaps where he cast the remnants from 
his food; sometimes in the gravel of old river beds where he 
fished. As a rule in such deposits, the lowest layers of soil 
contain the rudest sort of tools, while higher layers contain 
similar remains some- 
what less primitive. 
By the study of many 
thousands of these de- 
posits, scholars have 
learned how one tool de- 
veloped out of another 
simpler one, and have 
been able to trace many 
of the steps by which 
man rose from savagery. 
This study, then, gives 
us a series of pictures 
of the life of primitive 
man ; but we cannot get 
a continuous story from 
it. It is quite apart 
from history. All this 
early time, until man 
begins to leave writteii 




records of his life, is 



Prehistoric Stone Daggers from 
Scandinavia. 

called prehistoric. 

2. Prehistoric time is conveniently divided into the Old 

Stone Age, the New Stone Age, and the Bronze Age, according 

to the material from which tools were made. In the first 

period, arrow heads and knives were pieces of flint merely 

chipped roughly to give them a sort of edge. The New Stone 

Age begins when men learned to give these stone weapons a 

truer edge and more polished form by grinding them with 

other stones. The men of this age possessed flocks and herds. 

They knew how to till the soil, to spin and weave, to make 



PREHISTORIC AGES 



[§2 



pottery and decorate it, and in some places, before the close of 
the long period, to build cities with immense palaces and 
temples of stone or sun-baked brick. Commonly they buried 
their dead with food and tools in the grave. This indicates 
that they had come to believe in a future life, somewhat like 
the one on earth. 

At last, perhaps by a lucky accident, some Stone Age man 
found that fire* would separate copper from the ore. Now 

better tools were possible, and a 
more rapid advance began. But 
copper tools were still clumsy and 
quickly lost their edge. Soon 
men learned to mix a little tin 
with the copper in the fire. This 
formed a metal we call bronze. 
Bronze is easily worked, and 
after cooling, it is much harder 
than either of its parts alone. 
The men of the Bronze Age 
equipped themselves with tools 
and weapons of keener and more 
lasting edge, and more convenient 
form, than ever before. With 
these, they easily conquered the 
more poorly armed Stone Age 
men about them, and also added to their own physical comfort. 
The use of bronze seems to have developed independently 
in various centers ; and by war and trade, it spread over wide 
regions. 

Finally, men learned to smelt and use iron. This marked a 
still greater advance, — the most important gain after the dis- 
covery of fire. By the opening of the Iron Age, or soon after- 
ward, man has usually invented or adopted an alphabet, and 
Ms history proper has begun. Sometimes, as with the peoples 
we shall study first, history begins long before the close of the 
Bronze Age. 




Series of Axes : 

1 and 2, Old Stone Age; 3, New 
Stone; 4, Bronze Age. 



§3] 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION 



Men have advanced at different rates in different parts of the earth. 
When Columbus discovered America, all the natives of the Western 
Hemisphere were in some part of the Stone Age, — as are still some 
remote tribes in our Philippines and in parts of South America, Africa, 
and Australia. But in the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates, the peo- 
ples we are first to study had risen out of this stage at least 7000 years 
ago. Even among the same people, the different "ages" overlapped. 
Nobles and leaders used bronze weapons, while the poorer classes had 
still only their stone implements. 

3. Our Inheritance from Prehistoric Man. — We are in position 
now to appreciate dimly how the earliest civilization rested 




Some Stages in Fire-making. — From Tylor. 

upon the unrecorded strivings of primitive man through un- 
counted thousands of years. Five prehistoric contributions 
are so supremely important as to deserve special mention. 

a. The use of fire seems to have been the thing that first set 
man distinctly above other animals. Without fire, he was 
limited to raw food and to stone implements. Tlie Story of Ah ^ 
pictures a youth of the Stone Age discovering the use of 
fire from a burning natural gas (presumably set aflame by 
lightning). Other scholars have guessed that the first source 
of fire was volcanic lava, or a tree trunk ablaze from lightning. 
Certainly, at some early period of the Old Stone Age, man had 
conquered that dread of flame which all wild animals show and 
had come to know fire as his truest friend. Charred fragments 

1 This little book by Stanley Waterloo is an admirable attempt to portray 
Eome of the steps in early human progress in the form of a story. It will be 
enjoyed by any high school boy or girl. 



6 PREHISTORIC AGES [§ 3 

of bone and wood are common among the earliest human de- 
posits. One of the oldest tools in the world is the " fire-borer," 
a hard stick of wood with which man started a fire by boring 
into a more inflammable wood. The methods of making fire 
which are pictured on the preceding page were all invented by 
prehistoric man ; and the stick and bow-string was the best 
way known to any of the great historic nations that we shall 
study in this book. 

b. Most of the domestic animals familiar to us in the barn- 
yard or on the farm had been tamed into useful friends by pre- 
historic man. The Asiatic lands where civilization began were 
their native homes. This, no doubt, is one great reason why 
civilization began in those lands, — just as the almost total 
lack of animals fit for domestic life is a reason why the Ameri- 
can hemisphere remained backward until discovered by the 
Old World. 

c. WJieat, barley, rice, and nearly all our important food 
grains and garden vegetables were tamed also by the prehis- 
toric man of Asia. Out of the myriads of wild plants, all our 
marvelous progress in science has failed to reveal even one 
other in the Old World so useful to man as those which pre- 
historic man selected for cultivation. Their only rivals are 
the potato and maize (Indian corn), which the New World 
aborigines, in the stage of savagery, selected for cultivation. 

d. Language is one of the most precious parts of our inheri- 
tance from the ages. It is not merely the means by which we 
exchange ideas with one another: it is also the means by 
which we do our thinking. No high order of thought is pos- 
sible without words. Some very primitive savages to-day have 
only a few words. They can count only by fingers and toes or 
by bundles of sticks, and they communicate with one another 
somewhat as the higher animals do. In the dark they can 
hardly talk at all. The first word-making is slow work ; but 
through the long prehistoric ages, among the more progressive 
peoples, there were developed from rude beginnings several 
rich and copious languages. 



§4] CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION 7 

e. The invention of writing multiplied the value of language. 
Not only is it an "artificial memory"; it also enables us to 
speak to those who are far away, and even to those who are 
not yet born. Many early peoples used a picture writing such 
as is common still among North American Indians. In this 
kind of writing, a picture represents either an object or some 
idea connected with that object. A drawing of an animal with 
wings may stand for a bird or for flying ; or a character like 
this stands for either the sun or for light. At first such 
pictures are true drawings : later they are simplified into forms 
agreed upon. Thus in ancient Chinese, man was represented 
by /^, and in modern Chinese by /\* 

Vastly important is the advance to a rebus stage of writing. 
Here a symbol has come to have a sound value wholly apart 
from the original object, as if the symbol O above were used 
for the second syllable in delight. So in early Egyptian writ- 
ing, <z>f the symbol for " mouth," was pronounced r^. There- 
fore it was used as the last syllable in writing the word khopirHy 
which meant " to be," while symbols of other objects in like 
manner stood for the other syllables. 

This representation of syllables by pictures of objects is the 
first stage in sound writing, as distinguished from picture writ- 
ing proper. Finally, some of these characters are used to 
represent not whole syllables, but single sounds. One of 
Kipling's Just So stories illustrates how such a change might 
come about. Then, if these characters are kept and all others 
dropped, we have a true alphabet. Picture writing, such as 
that of the Chinese, requires many thousand symbols. Several 
hundred characters are necessary for even simple syllabic writ- 
ing. But a score or so of letters are enough for an alpha- 
bet. Several primitive peoples developed their writing to the 
syllabic stage ; and about 1000 e.g., in various districts about 
the eastern Mediterranean, alphabetic writing appeared. 

4. The Field of History. — History is the story of the re- 
corded life of man. But even when we leave out prehistoric 
ages, there is still too much human life for us to study properly. 



8 



THE FIELD OF ANCIENT HISTORY 



We cannot deal with all historic peoples. We must narroT^ 
the field. We care most to know of those peoples whose life 
has borne fruit for our own life. We shall study that part of 
the recorded past which explains our present. 

Thus we bound our study in space as well as in time. We 
omit, for instance, the ancient civilizations of the Chinese and 
Hindoos, because they have not much affected our progress. 




The Field of Ancient History, to 800 a.d. 



Until after Columbus, our interest centers in Europe. And 
when we look for the early peoples who shaped European life, 
we see three preeminent, — the Greeks, the Romans, and the 
Teutons. 

Ancient History deals especially with these three peoples, 
from their earliest records until their separate stories become 
merged in one. By 800 a.d. this merging has taken place. 
Then ancient history may be said to cease and modern history 
to begin. This book will deal only with ancient history. 



^41 AND THE PEOPLES 9 

Of these three chief peoples of ancient Europe the Greeks 
were the first to rise to civilized life. But the civilization of 
the Greeks was not wholly their own. It was partly shaped 
by certain older civilizations outside Europe, near the eastern 
shores of the Mediterranean. The history of these Oriental 
peoples covered thousands of years; but we shall view only 
fragments of it, and we do that merely by way of introduction 
to Greek history. Oriental history is a sort of dim anteroom 
through which we pass to European history. 

One of the Oriental peoples, the Hebrews, has been a mighty influence 
in our highest life. They are not here counted a fourth among the great 
historic races, because, after all, their influence came to us largely through 
Greece and Rome. They will, however, receive particular attention 
among the Oriental peoples. 

Tli^ field of ancient history, then, is small, compared with 
the world of our day. It was limited, of course, to the Eastern 
hemisphere, and covered only a small part of that. At its 
greatest extent, it reached north only through Central Europe, 
east through less than a third of Asia, and south through only 
a small part of Northern Africa. Over even this territory it 
spread very slowly, from much more limited areas. For the 
first four thousand years, it did not reach Europe at all. 



No Further Reading 's suggested, at this stage, in connection with the 
class work on the preceding topics. But students who wish to read 
further for their own pleasure will find treatments which they will enjoy 
and understand in any of the following books : Mason, Woman's Share 
in Primitive Culture; Keary, Dawn of History ; Starr, Some First 
Steps in Human Progress; Joly, Man before Metals; Clodd, Story of 
the Alphabet; Clodd, Story of Primitive Man. 

General Suggestions for Library Work in Ancient History 

The appearance of William Stearns Davis' Headings in Ancient His- 

t^ory puts the matter of high school work in the library on a new basis. 

A.S a result, the author of the present textbook will confine his special 

suggestions for library work in Greek history (up to the period of Alex- 



10 THE FIELD OF ANCIENT HISTORY [§ 4 

ander) to the Headings and to one other single-volume work, — J. B. 
Bury's History of Greece, — with occasional alternatives suggested for the 
latter. While it is desirable that every student should possess a copy of 
the Headings, in cases where that is impossible, from five to twenty copies 
of these two works (according to the size of classes) will equip the school 
library fairly well for the work. 

In like manner, for Rome (to the Empire), the Headings and either 
Pelham's Outlines of Boman History or How and Leigh's History afford 
satisfactory material. For Oriental history, there is no one satisfactory 
volume to go with the Headings ; but library work is less important for 
that period. Unfortunately, single volumes of the right sort are missing 
also for the important periods of later Greek history and of the Roman 
Empire. So far as possible, however, the suggestions for reading on those 
periods, too, follow this same principle. The select bibliography in the 
appendix names a few more of the most desirable volumes for high school 
students. 



PAKT I 

THE OKIENTAL PEOPLES 

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand. 
Half-sunk, a shattered visage lies. 

And on the pedestal, these words appear : 

''My name is Ozymandias, king of kings - 

Look on my works, Ye Mighty, and despair!'' 

Nothing beside remains. Bound the decay 

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. 

The lone and level sands stretch far away. — Shelley. 



CHAPTER I 
A PRELIMINARY SURVEY 

5. The Rediscovery of Early History. — Until about a century 
ago very little was known about the ancient history of the 
East. There were only the brief statements of Hebrew writers 
in the Old Testament and some stories preserved by the 
Greeks. In the Nile valley there had been found a few an- 
cient inscriptions, carved upon stone in unknown characters, 
but no one could read them. 

But, about 1800 a.d., some soldiers of Napoleon in Egypt, 
while laying foundations for a fort at the Rosetta mouth of 
the Nile (map, page 16), found a curious slab of black rock. 
This "Rosetta Stone" bore three inscriptions: one of these 
was in Greek ; one, in the ancient hieroglyphs of the pyramids 
(§ 22) ; and the third, in a later Egyptian writing, which had 
likewise been forgotten. A French scholar, Champollion, 

11 



12 THE ORIENTAL PEOPLES [§ 5 

guessed shrewdly that the three inscriptioDS all told the same 
story and used many of the same words ; and in 1822 he proved 
chis to be true. Then, by means of the Greek, he found the 
meaning of the other characters, and so learned to read the long- 

Portion of Rosetta Stone, containing the hieroglyphs first deciphered. 
From Erman's Life in Ancient Egypt. 

forgotten language of old Egypt. Soon afterward a like task 
was accomplished for the old Assyrian language (§ 75, note). 

At first there was little to read; but a new interest had 
been aroused, and, about 1850, scholars began extensive ex- 
plorations in the East. Sites of forgotten cites, buried beneath 



Part of the Above Inscription, on a larger scale. 



desert sands, were rediscovered. Many of them contained great 
libraries on papyrus,^ or on stone and brick. A part of these 
have been translated ; and since 1880 the results have begun 
to appear in our books. The explorations are still going on; 
and very recent years have been the most fruitful of all in dis- 
coveries. 

1 The papyrus was a reed which grew abundantly in the Nile and the 
Euphrates rivers. From slices of its stem a kind of " paper " was prepared 
by laying them together crosswise and pressing them int<^ a smooth sheet, 
Our word " paper" comes from " papyrus." 



§7] THE CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION 13 

6. The Two Centers. —The first homes of civilization were 
Egypt and Chaldea, — the lower valleys of the Nile and the 
Euphrates. In the Euphrates valley the wild wheat and bar- 
ley afforded abundant food, with little effort on the part of 
man. The Nile valley had the marvelous date palm and va- 
rious grains. In each of these lands there grew up a dense 
population, and so part of the people were able to give atten-- 
tion to other matters than getting food from day to day. 

In a straight line, Egypt and Chaldea were some eight hun- 
dred miles apart. Practically, the distance was greater. The 
only route fit for travel ran along two sides of a triangle, — 
north from Egypt, between the mountain ranges of western 
Syria, to the upper waters of the Euphrates, and then down 
the course of that river. 

Except upon this Syrian side, Egypt and Chaldea were shut 
off from other desirable countries. In Asia, civilizations rose 
at an early date in China and in India (§4); but they were 
separated from Chaldea by vast deserts and lofty mountains. 
In Africa, until Roman days, there was no great civilization ex- 
cept the Egyptian, unless we count the Abyssinian on the 
south (map on page 16). The Abyssinians were brave and 
warlike, and they seem to have drawn some culture from 
Egypt. But a desert extended between Abyssinia and Egypt, 
a twelve-day march; and intercourse by the river was cut off 
by long series of cataracts and rocky gorges. It was hard for 
trade caravans to travel from one country to the other, and ex- 
tremely hard for armies to do so. To the west of Egypt lay 
the Sahara, stretching across the continent, — an immense, in- 
hospitable tract. On the north and east lay the Mediterranean 
and the Red Sea; and these broad moats were bridged only at 
one point by the isthmus. 

7. Syria a Third Center.^ — Thus, with sides and rear pro- 
tected, Egypt faced Asia across the narrow Isthmus of Suez. 

1 The term " Syria " is used with a varying meaning. In a narrow sense, 
as in this passage, it means only the coast region. In a broader use, it applies 
to all the country between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates. 



14 THE ORIENTAL PEOPLES [§ 7 

Here, too, the region bordering Egypt was largely desert; but 
farther north, between the desert and the sea, lay a strip of 
habitable land. This Syrian region became the trade exchange 
and battle-ground of the two great states, and drew civilization 
from them. 

Syria was itself a nursery of warlike peoples. Here dwelt 
the Phoenicians, Philistines, Canaanites, Hebrews, and Hit- 
tites, whom we hear of in the Bible. Usually all these peoples 
weio tributary ^ to Egypt or Chaldea ; and from those countries 
they drew their civilization. Despite Syria' s perilous position 
on the road from Africa to Asia, its inhabitants might have 
kept their independence, if they could have united against 
their common foes. But rivers and ranges of mountains broke 
the country up into five or six districts, all small, and each 
hostile to the others. At times, however, when both the great 
powers were weak, there did arise independent Syrian king- 
doms, like that of the Jews under David. 

1 A tributary country is one which is subject to some other country, with- 
out being absolutely joined to it. The " tributary " pays " tribute " and rec- 
ognizes the authority of the superior country, but for most purposes it keeps 
its own government. 



CHAPTER II 

EGYPT 

GEOGRAPHY 

Egypt as a geographical expression is two things — the Desert and the 
Nile. As a habitable country, it is only one thing — the Nile. 

— Alfred Milner. 

8. The Land, — Ancient Egypt, by the map, included about 
as much land as Colorado or Italy ; but seven eighths of it was 
only a sandy border to the real Egypt. The real Egypt is the 
valley and delta of the Nile — from the cataracts to the sea. 
It is smaller than Maryland, and falls into two natural parts. 

Upper Egypt is the valley proper. It is a strip of rich soil 
about six hundred miles long and usually about ten miles wide 
— a slim oasis between parallel ranges of desolate hills (map, 
page 16) . For the remaining hundred miles, the valley broadens 
suddenly into the delta. This Lower Egypt is a squat triangle, 
resting .on a two-hundred-mile base of curving coast where 
marshy lakes meet the sea. 

9. The Nile. — The ranges of hills that bound the " valley '' 
were originally the banks of a mightier Nile, which, in early 
ages, cut out a gorge from the solid limestone for the future 
"valley."' The "delta'' has been built up out of the mud 
which the stream has carried out and deposited on the old sea 
bottom. 

And what the river has made, it sustains. This was what 
the Greeks meant when they called Egypt "the gift of the 
Nile." Eain rarely falls in the valley; and toward the close 
of the eight cloudless months before the annual overflow, there 
is a brief period when the land seems gasping for moisture, — 
" only half alive, waiting the new Nile." The river begins to 

15 



16 



EGYPT 



[§10 



rise in July, swollen by tropical rains at its upper course in 
distant Abyssinia; and it does not fully recede into its regular- 
channel until November. During the days while the flood is 
at its height, Egypt is a sheet of turbid water, spreading be- 
tween two lines of 
rock and sand. 
The waters are 
dotted with towns 
and villages, and 
marked off into 
compartments by 
raised roads, run- 
ning from town to 
town; while from 
a sandy plateau, 
at a distance, the 
pyramids look 
down upon the 
scene, as they have 
done each season 
for five thousand 
years. As the 
water retires, the 
rich loam dressing, 
brought down from 
the hills of Ethi- 
opia, is left spread 
over the fields, re- 
newing their won- 
derful fertility 
from year to year ; 
while the long soaking supplies moisture to the soil for the 
dry months to come. 

10. The Inhabitants. — The oldest records yet found in 
Egypt reach back to about 5000 b.c. At that time the use 
of bronze was already well advanced. Eemains in the soil 




1 10] THE NILE 17 

show that there had been earlier dwellers using rude stone 
implements and practising savage customs. How many thou- 
sands of years it took for this savagery to develop into the 
culture of 5000 b.c. we do not know. 

Culture is almost a synonym for civilization; but it is also used in a some- 
what broader sense, to include the stages of savagery and barbarism that 
precede true civilization. It is common to speak of the invention of pot- 
tery as the point at which savagery passes into barbarism, and the inven 
tion of the alphabet as the transition from barbarism to civilization. 




Photograph of a Modern Egyptian Woman sitting by a Sculptured 
Head of an Ancient King. -From Maspero's Dawn of Civilization. 
Notice the likeness of feature. The skulls of the modern peasants and of 
the ancient nobles are remarkably alike in form. 

Probably the cheap food of the valley attracted tribes from 
all the neighboring regions at an early date. The struggles of 
these peoples, and the intermingling of the strongest of them, 
at length produced the vigorous Egyptian race of history. 
That race contained the blood of Abyssinian, Berber,^ Negro, 

iThe Berbers are the short dark race of North Africa from whom the 
Moors are descended. 



18 EGYPT [§ 11 

and Arabian, and possibly of other peoples ; but before the be- 
ginning of history these had all been welded into one type 
which has lasted to the present day. 

11. Growth of a Kingdom. — The first inhabitants lived by 
fishing along the streams and hunting fowl in the marshes 
When they began to take advantage of their rare opportunity 
for agriculture, new problems arose. Before that time, each 
tribe or village could be a law to itself. But now it became 
necessary for whole districts to combine in order to drain 
marshes, to create systems of ditches for the distribution of 




Boatmen fighting on the Nile. — Egyptian relief i; from Maspero. 

the water, and to construct vast reservoirs for the surplus. 
Thus the Nile, which had made the land, played a part in 
making Egypt into one state.^ To control the yearly overflow 
was the first common interest of all the people. At first, no 
doubt through wasteful centuries, separate villages strove only 
to get each its needful share of water, without attention to the 
needs of others. The engravings on early monuments show 
the people of neighboring villages waging bloody wars along 
the dikes, or in rude boats on the canals, before they learned 
the costly lesson of cooperation. But such hostile action, 

1 A relief is a piece of sculpture in which the figures are only partly cut 
•away from the solid rock. 

2 The word " state " is commonly used in history not in the sense in which 
we call Massachusetts a state, but rather in that sense in which we call Eng- 
land or the whole United States a state. That is, the word means a people, 
living in some definite place, with a government of its own. 



§ 12J GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 19 

cutting the dams and destroying the reservoirs year by yearj 
was ruinous. From an early period, men in the Nile valley 
must have felt the need of agreement and of political union. 

Accordingly, before history begins, the multitudes of villages 
had combined into about forty petty states. Each one ex- 
tended from side to side of the valley and a few miles up and 
down the river; and each was ruled by a "king.'^ In order to 
secure prompt action against enemies to the dikes, and to di- 
rect all the forces of the state at the necessary moment, the 
ruler had to have unlimited power. So these kings became 
absolute despots, and the mass of the people became little 
better than slaves. Then the same forces which had worked 
to unite villages into states tended to combine the many small 
states into a few larger ones. Memphis, in the lower valley, 
and Thebes, 350 miles farther up the river, were the greatest of 
many rival cities. After centuries of conflict, Menes, prince of 
Memphis, united the petty principalities around him into the 
kingdom of Lower Egypt. In like manner Thebes became the 
capital of a kingdom of Upper Egypt. About the year 3400 
before Christ, the two kingdoms were united into one. Later 
Egyptians thought of Menes as the first king of the whole 
country. 

GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 

12. Social Classes. — The king was worshiped as a god by 
the mass of the people. His title, Pharaoh, means The Great 
House, — as the title of the supreme ruler of Turkey in modern 
times has been the Sublime Porte (Gate). The title implies 
that the ruler was to be a refuge for his people. 

The pharaoh was the absolute owner of the soil. The Old 
Testament gives an account of how this ownership was made 
complete through a " corner in wheat " arranged by Pharaoh's 
adviser, the Hebrew Joseph. But probably the kings had 
taken most of the soil for their own from the first, in return j.br 
protecting it by their dikes and reservoirs. At all events, this 
ownership helped to make the pharaoh absolute master of the 



20 



EGYPT 



[§12 






inhabitants, — though in practice his authority was somewhat 
limited by the power of the priests and by the necessity of 
keeping ambitious nobles friendly.^ Part of the land he kept 
in his own hands, to be cultivated by peasants under the direc- 
tion of royal stewards ; but the greater portion he parceled out 
among the nobles and temples. 

In return for the land granted to him, a nohle was bound to 
pay certain amounts of produce, and to lead a certain number 
of soldiers to war. Within his domain, the noble was a petty 

monarch : he ex- 
ecuted justice, 
levied his own 
taxes, kept up his 
own army. Like 
the king, he held 
part of his land 
in his own hands, 
while other parts 
he let out to 
smaller nobles. 
These men were 
dependent upon him, much as he was dependent upon the king. 
About a third of the land was turned over by the king to 
the temples to support the worship of the gods. This land be- 
came the property of the priests. The priests were also the 
scholars of Egypt, and they took an active part in the govern- 
ment. The pharaoh took most of his high officials from them, 
and their influence far exceeded that of the nobles. 
vThe peasants tilled the soil. They were not unlike the 
peasants of modern Egypt. They rented small "farms," — 
hardly more than garden plots, — for which they paid at least 
a third of the produce to the landlord. This left too little for 
a family ; and they eked out a livelihood by day labor on the 
land of the nobles and priests. For this work they were paid 
by a small part of the produce. The peasant, too, had to 

1 See Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 2. 




A Capital from Karnak. — From Liibke. 



112] 



CLASSES OF PEOPLE 21 



remain under the protection of some powerful landlord, or lie 
might become the prey of any one whom he chanced to offend. 

Still, in quarrels with the rich, the poor were perhaps as safe as they 
have been in most countries. The oldest written "story" in the world 
(surviving in a papyrus of about 2700 b.c. ) gives an interesting illustration. 
A peasant, robbed through a legal trick by the favorite of a royal ofiBcer, 
appeals to the judges and finally to the king. The king commands redress, 
urging his officer to do justice "like a praiseworthy man praised by the 
praiseworthy." The passage in quotation marks shows that there was a 
strong public opinion against injustice. Probably such appeals by the 
poor were no more difficult to make than they were in Germany or France 
until a hundred years ago. And we have not yet learned how to give the 
poor man an absolutely equal chance with the rich in our law courts. 

In the towns there was a large middle c^ass, — merchants, 
shopkeepers, physicians, lawyers,^ builders, artisans (§ 20). 

Below these were the unskilled laborers. This class was 
sometimes driven to a strike by hunger. 

Maspero, a famous French scholar in Egyptian history, makes the 
following statement (Struggle of the Nations, 539): — 

"Rations were allowed each workman at the end of every month; 
but, from the usual Egyptian lack of forethought, these were often con- 
sumed long before the next assignment. Such an event was usually 
followed by a strike. On one occasion we are shown the workmen turn- 
ing to the overseer, saying : ' We are perishing of hunger, and there are 
still eighteen days before the next month.' The latter makes profuse 
promises ; but, when nothing comes of them, the workmen will not listen 
to him longer. They leave their work and gather in a public meeting. 
The overseer hastens after them, and the police commissioners of the 
locality and the scribes mingle with them, urging upon the leaders a 
return. But the workmen only say: 'We will not return. Make it 
clear to your superiors down below there.' The official who reports the 
matter to the authorities seems to think the complaints well founded, for 
he says, ' We went to hear them, and they spoke true words to us.' " 

Throughout Egyptian society, the son usually followed the 
father's occupation ; but there was no law (as in some Oriental 
countries) to prevent his passing into a different class. Some- 

1 These were mainly notaries, — to draw up business papers, record trans- 
fers of property, and so on. 



22 



EGYPT 



[§12 



times the son of a poor herdsman rose to wealth and power. 
Such advance was most easily open to the scribes. This learned 
profession was recruited from the brightest boys of the middle 
and lower classes. Most of the scribes found clerical work 
only ; but from the ablest ones the nobles chose confidential 
secretaries and stewards, and some of these, who showed 

special ability, were pro- 
moted by the pharaohs 
to the highest dignities 
in the land. Such men 
founded new families and 
reinforced the ranks of 
the nobility. 

The soldiers formed an 
important profession. 
Campaigns were so deadly 
that it was hard to find 
soldiers enough. Ac- 
cordingly recruits were 
tempted by offers of 
special privileges. Each 
soldier held a farm of 
some eight acres,^ free 
from taxes ; and he was 
kept under arms only 
when his services were 
needed. Besides this reg- 
ular soldiery, the peas- 
antry were called out 
upon occasion, for war or 
for garrisons. 
There was also a large body of officials, organized in many 
grades like the officers of an army. Every despotic government 
has to have such a class, to act as eyes, hands, and feet ; but 




Portrait Statue of Amten, a 
made" noble of 3200 B.C. 



self- 



1 For Egypt this was a large farm. See page 20. 



§13] 



LIFE OF THE PEOPLE 



23 



in ancient Egypt the royal servants were particularly numerous 
and important. Until the seventh century b.c. the Egyptians 
had no money. Thus the immense royal revenues, as well as all 
debts between private men, had to be collected "in kind." 
The tax-collectors and treasurers had to receive geese, ducks, 
cattle, grain, wine, oil, metals, jewels, — "all that the heavens 




Egyptian Noble hunting Waterfowl on the Nile with the " throw- 
stick" (a boomerang). The birds rise from a group of papyrus reeds.— 
Egyptian relief ; after Maspero. 

give, all that the earth produces, all that the Nile brings from 
its mysterious sources," as one king puts it in an inscription* 
To do this called for an army of royal officials. For a like 
reason, the great nobles needed a large class of trustworthy 
servants. 

13. Summary of Social Classes. — Thus, in Egyptian society, 
we have at the top an aristocracy, of several elements : (1) the 
nobles; (2) the powerful and learned priesthood, whose in- 
fluence almost equaled that of the pharaoh himself ; (3) scribes 



24 EGYPT [§ 14 

and physicians ; (4) a privileged soldiery ; and (5) a mass ol 
privileged officials of many grades, from the greatest rulers 
next to the pharaoh, down to petty tax collectors and the stew- 
ards of private estates. Lower down there was the middle class^ 
of shopkeepers and artisans, whose life ranged from comfort 
to a grinding misery; while at the base of society was a large 
mass of toilers on the land, weighted down by all the other 
classes. It is not strange that, in time, upper and lower 
classes came to differ in physical appearance. The later 
monuments represent the nobles tall and lithe, with imperious 
bearing; while the laborer is pictured heavy of feature and 
dumpy in build. 

14. Life of the Wealthy. — For most of the well-to-do, life 
was a very delightful thing, filled with active employment and 
varied with many pleasures.^ Their homes were roomy houses 
with a wooden frame plastered over with sun-dried clay. 
Light and air entered at the many latticed windows, where, 
however, curtains of brilliant hues shut out the occasional sand 
storms from the desert. About the house stretched a large 
garden with artificial fish-ponds gleaming among the palm 
trees.^ 

15. The Life of the Poor. — There were few slaves in Egypt ; 
but the condition of the great mass of the people fell little 
short of practical slavery. Toilers on the canals, and on the 
pyramids and other vast works that have made Egypt famous, 
were kept to their labor by the whip. " Man has a back," was 
a favorite Egyptian proverb. The monuments always picture 
the overseers with a stick, and often show it in use. The people 
thought of a beating as a natural incident in their daily work. 

The peasants did not live in the country, as our farmers do. 
They were crowded into the villages and poorer quarters of the 

1 The student who has access to Maspero's Dawn of Civilization (or to 
various other illustrated works on Early Egypt) can make an interesting 
report upon these recreations from what he can see in the pictures from the 
monuments. 

2 A full description of a noble's house is given in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, 
No. 5. 



§15) 



LIFE OF THE POOR 25 



towns, with the other poorer classes. The house of a poor 
man was a mud hovel of only one room. Such huts were 
separated from one another merely by one mud partition, and 
were built in long rows, facing upon narrow crooked alleys 
filled with filth. A "plague of flies" was natural enough-, 
and only the extremely dry air kept down that and worse pes- 



Levying the Tax.— An Egyptian relief from the monuments; from Maspero. 

tilences. Hours of toil were from dawn to dark. Taxes were 
exacted harshly, and the peasant was held responsible for them 
with all that he owned, even with his body. An Egyptian 
writer of about 1400 e.g. exclaims in pity : — 

" Dost thou not recall the picture of the farmer, when the tenth of his 
grain is levied ? Worms have destroyed half of the wheat, and the hip- 
popotami have eaten the rest. There are swarms of rats in the fields ; the 
grasshoppers alight there ; the cattle devour ; the little birds pilfer ; and if 
the farmer lose sight for an instant of what remains upon the ground, 
it is carried off by robbers. The thongs, moreover, which bind the iron 
and the hoe are worn out, and the team [of cows] has died at the plow. 
It is then that the scribe steps out of the boat at the landing place to levy 
the tithe, and there come the keepers of the doors of the granary with 
cudgels and the Negroes with ribs of palm-leaves [very effective whips], 
crying : ' Come now, corn ! ' There is none, and they throw the culti. 
vator full length upon the ground ; bound, dragged to the canal, they 
fling him in head first [probably a figurative way of saying that he was 
forced to work out his tax on the canals] ; his wife is bound with him, 
his children are put into chains ; the neighbors, in the meantime, leave 
him and fly to save their grain." 



26 EGYPT 5 16 

Still, JTidging from Egyptian literature, the peasants seem 
to have been careless and gay, petting the cattle and singing 
at their work. Probably they were as well off as the like class 
has been during the past century in Egypt or in Russia. 

16. The position of women was better than it was to be 
in the Greek civilization, and much better than in modern 
Oriental countries. The poor man's wife spun and wove, and 
ground grain into meal in a stone bowl with another stone. 
Among the upper classes, the wife was the companion of the 
man. She was not shut up in a harem or confined strictly to 
household duties: she appeared in company and at public 
ceremonies. She possessed equal rights at law; and some- 
times great queens ruled upon the throne. In no other coun- 
try, until modern times, do pictures of happy home life play so 
large a part. 

INDUSTRY AND LEARNING 

17. The Irrigation System. — Before the year 2000 b.c, the 
Egyptians had learned to supplement the yearly overflow of 
the Nile by an elaborate irrigation system. Even earlier, they 
had built dikes to keep the floods from the towns and gardens ; 
and the care of these embankments remained a special duty of 
the government through all Egyptian history. But between 
2400 and 2000 b.c. the pharaohs created a wonderful reservoir 
system. On the one hand, tens of thousands of acres of marsh 
were drained and made fit for rich cultivation : on the other 
hand, artificial lakes were built at various places, to collect 
and hold the surplus water of the yearly inundation. Then, 
by an intricate network of ditches and " gates " (much like the 
irrigation ditches of some of our western States to-day), the 
water was distributed during the dry months as it was needed. 
The government opened and closed the main ditches, as seemed 
best to it ; and its oflicers oversaw the more minute distribution 
of the water, by which each farm in the vast irrigated districts 
was given its share. Then, from the main ditch of each farm, 
the farmer himself carried the water in smaller water courses 



§ 181 AGRICULTURE 27 

to one part or another of his acres, — these small ditches 
gradually growing smaller and smaller, until, by moving a 
little mud with the foot, he could turn the water one way or 
another at his will. Ground so cultivated was divided into 
square beds, surrounded by raised borders of earth, so that the 
water could be kept in or out of each bed. 

The most important single worl?: of this system of irrigation was the 
artificial Lake Moeris (map, page 16). This was constructed by improv- 
ing a natural basin in the desert. To this depression, a canal was dug 
from the Nile through a gorge in the hills for a distance of eight miles. 
At the Nile side, a huge dam, with gates, made it possible to carry off 
through the canal the surplus water at flood periods. The canal was 
30 feet deep and 160 feet wide ; and from the "lake," smaller canals 
distributed the water over a large district which had before been perfectly 
barren. This useful work was still in perfect condition two thousand 
years after its creation, and was praised highly by a Koman geographer 
who visited it then. 

So extensive were these irrigation works in very early times 
that more soil was cultivated, and more wealth produced, and 
a larger population maintained, than in any modern period 
until English control was established in the country a short 
time ago. Herodotus (§ 21) says that in his day Egypt hacj 
twenty thousand " towns " (villages). 

18. Agriculture. — Wheat and barley had been introduced at 
an early time from the Euphrates region, and some less im- 
portant grains (like sesame) were also grown. Besides the 
grain, the chief food crops were beans, peas, lettuce, radishes, 
melons, cucumbers, and onions. Clover was raised for cattle, 
and flax for the linen cloth which was the main material for 
clothing.^ Grapes, too, were grown in great quantities, for the 
manufacture of a light wine. 

Herodotus says 'that seed was merely scattered broadcast on 
the moist soil as the water receded each November, and then 
trampled in by cattle and goats and pigs. But the pictures on 

1 There was also some cotton raised, and the abundant flocks of sheep 
furnished wool. 




28 EGYPT [§ IS 

the monuments show that, in parts of Egypt anyway, a light 
wooden plow was used to stir the ground. This plow was 
drawn by two cows. Even the large farms were treated 
almost like gardens ; and the yield was enormous, — reaching 

the rate of a hun- 
dred fold for 
grain. Long after 
her greatness had 
departed, Egypt 
remained "the 
granary of the 

Mediterranean 
Egyptian Plow. —After Rawlinson. lands " 

The various crops matured at different seasons, and so 
kept the farmer busy through most of the year. Besides the 
plow, his only tools were a short, crooked hoe (the use of 
which bent him almost double) and the sickle. The grain was 
cut with this last implement; then carried in baskets to a 
threshing floor, — and trodden out by cattle, which were driven 
round and round, while the drivers sang, — 

" Tread, tread, tread out the grain. 
Tread for yourselves, for yourselves. 
Measures for the master ; measures for yourselves.'* 

An Egyptian barnyard contained many animals familiar to 
us (cows, sheep, goats, scrawny pigs much like the wild hog, 
geese, ducks, and pigeons), and also a number of others like 
antelopes, gazelles, and storks. Some of these it proved im- 
possible to tame profitably. We must remember that men had 
to learn by careful experiment, through many generations of animal 
life, which animals it paid best to domesticate. The hen was not 
known ; nor was the horse present in Egypt until a late period 
(§ 29). Even then he was never common enough to use in 
agriculture or as a draft animal. 

During the flood periods cattle were fed in stalls upon clover 
and wheat straw. The monuments picture some exciting 



§191 



TRADE 



29 



scenes when a rapid rise of the Nile forced the peasants to 
remove their flocks and herds hurriedly, through the surging 
waters, from usual grazing grounds to the flood-time quarters. 
Veal, mutton, and antelope flesh were the common meats of the 
rich. The poor lived mainly on vegetables and goats' milk„ 

19. Trade. — Until about 650 b.c, the Egyptians had no true 
money. For some centuries before that date, they had used 
rings of gold and silver, to some extent, somewhat as we use 
money; but these rings had no fixed weight, and had to be 




Market Scene. —Egyptian relief from the monuments. 

placed on the scales each time they changed hands. During 
most of Egypt's three thousand years of greatness, indeed, ex- 
change in her market places was by barter. A peasant with 
wheat or onions to sell squatted by his basket, while would-be 
customers offered him earthenware, vases, fans, or other objects 
with which they had come to buy, but which perhaps he did not 
want. (The student will be interested in an admirable descrip- 
tion of a market scene in Davis' Headings, Vol. I, No. 7. The 
picture above, from an Egyptian monument, is one of those 
used as the basis of that account.) 

We hardly know whether to be most amazed at the wonder- 
ful progress of the Egyptians in some lines, or at their failure 



30 



EGYPT 



[§20 



to invent money and an alphabet, when they needed those 
things so sorely and approached them so closely. 

In spite of this serious handicap, by 2000 b.o. the Egyptians 
carried on extensive trade. One inscription of that period de- 
scribes a ship bringing from the coast of Arabia "fragrant 
woods, heaps of myrrh, ebony and pure ivory, green gold, cin- 
namon, incense, cosmetics, apes, monkeys, dogs, and panther 
skins." Some of these things must have been gathered from 
distant parts of Eastern Asia. 

20. The Industrial Arts. — The skilled artisans included 
brickworkers, weavers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, 




Shoemakers. — Egyptian relief from the monuments; from Maspero. 

upholsterers, glass blowers, potters, shoemakers, tailors, ar 
morers, and almost as many other trades as are to be found 
among us to-day. In many of these occupations, the workers 
possessed a marvelous dexterity, and were masters of processes 
that are now unknown. The weavers in particular produced 
delicate and exquisite linen, almost as fine as silk, and the 
workers in glass and gold and bronze were famous for their skill. 
Jewels were imitated in colored glass so artfully that only an 
expert to-day can detect the fraud by the appearance. Iron 
was not much used until about 800 e.g. A few pieces of iron 
have been found in Egyptian ruins of earlier date ; but plainly 
these are "free" iron, such as is occasionally discovered in 
many parts of the world. Their presence in Egypt does not 
mean that the early inhabitants knew how to work in iron. 



§21] 



INDUSTRY AND ART 



31 



21. The chief fine arts were architecture, sculpture, and 
painting. The Egyptian art, indeed, was the architecture of 
the temple and the tomb. 

The most famous Egyptian buildings are the pyramids. 
They were the tombs of kings. That is, they were exaggerated 
imitations, in stone, of savage grave mounds like those of our 




Sphinx and Pyramids. -From a pbotograph. (The human head of the 
sphinx is supposed to have the magnified features of a pharaoh. It is set 
upon the body of a lion, as a symbol of power.) 

American Indians. The skill shown in the construction of the 
pyramids implies a remarkable knowledge of mathematics and 
of physics for such early times ; and their impressive massiveness 
has always placed them among the wonders of the world. 

The most important pyramids stand upon a sandy plateau a 
little below the city of Memphis (map, page 16). The largest, 
and one of the oldest, is known as the Great Pyramid. It is 
thought to have been built by King Cheops more than 3000 years 
before Christ, and it is by far the largest and most massive 



32 



EGYPT 



(§21 



building in the world. Its base covers thirteen acres, and it 
rises 481 feet from the plain. More than two million huge stone 
blocks went to make it, — more stone than has gone into any- 
other building in the world. * Some single blocks weigh over 
fifty tons ; but the edges of the blocks that form the faces are 





/ '^^t *^ .^"^ \ 


North 


il!S> 


South. •" 




-MeanSeaZa^t^^ _ . SCALE OP FEET . . ^;»-."™_"-|| 


100 


200 300 400 500 600 


70O 800 || 



Vertical Section of the Great Pyramid, looking West, showing 

passages. 



A Entrance passage. 
B A later opening. 
D First ascending passage. 
E Horizontal passage. 



F Queen's chamber. 
G G Grand gallery. 
H Antechamber. 
I Coffer. 



K King's chamber. 
M N Ventilating chambers. 
O Subterranean chamber. 
P Well, so called. 



REE Probable extent to which the native rock 
building. 



employed to assist the masonry of the 



SO polished, and so nicely fitted, that the joints can hardly be 
detected; while the interior chambers, and long, sloping pas- 
sages between them, are built with such skill that, notwith- 
standing the immense weight above them, there has been no 
perceptible settling of the walls in the lapse of five thousand 
years. 



§ 21] INDUSTRY AND ART 33 

Herodotus^ a Greek historian of the fifth century b.c, traveled in 
Egypt and learned all that the priests of his day could tell him regarding 
these wonders. He tells us that it took thirty years to build the Great 
Pyramid, — ten of those years going to piling the vast mounds of earth, up 
which the mighty stones were to be dragged into place, — which mounds 
had afterwards to be removed. During that thirty years, relays of a hun- 
dred thousand men were kept at the toil, each relay for three months at a 
stretch. Other thousands, of course, had to toil through a lifetime of 
labor to feed these workers on a monument to a monarch's vanity. All the 
labor was performed by mere human strength : the Egyptians of that day 
had no beasts of burden, and no machinery, such as we have, for moving 
great weights with ease. 

The pyramids were the work of an early line of kings, soon 
after the time of Menes. Later monarchs were content with 
smaller resting places for their own bodies/ and built instead 
gigantic temples for the gods. In their private dwellings the 
Egyptians sometimes used graceful columns and the true arch, 
but for their temples they preferred massive walls and rows of 
huge, close-set columns, supporting roofs of immense flat slabs 
of rock. The result gives an impression of stupendous power, 
but it lacks grace and beauty. 

On the walls of the temples and within the tombs we find the 
inscriptions and the papyrus rolls that tell us of ancient Egyp- 
tian life. With the inscriptions there are found long bands of 
pictures ("reliefs") cut into the walls, illustrating the story. 
There are found also many full statues, large and small. Much 
of the early sculpture was lifelike ; and even the unnatural 
colossal statues, such as the Sphinxes, have a gloomy grandeur 
in keeping with the melancholy desert that stretches about 
them. Later sculpture has less character and less finish. 

The painting lasted in the closed rock tombs with perfect 
freshness, but it fades quickly upon exposure to the air. The 
painters used color well, but they did not draw correct forms. 
Like the "relief" sculptures, the painting lacked perspective 
and proportion. 

1 Often, however, they used the old pyramids, already constructed, for their 
*^ombs, sometimes casting out the mummy of a predecessor. 



34 



EGYPT 



[§23 



22. Literature and the Hieroglyphs. — The Egyptians wrote 
religious books, poems, histories, travels, novels, orations, trea- 
tises upon morals, scientific works, geographies, cook-books, 




Ra-Hotep, a noble of about 3200 b.c. Princess Nefert, a portrait statu© 
Perhaps the oldest portrait statue in 5000 years old. Now in the Cairo 
the world. Now in the Cairo Museum. Museum. 



catalogues, and collections of fairy stories, — among the last a 
tale of an Egyptian Cinderella, with her fairy glass slipper. 
Oa the first monuments, writing had advanced from mer6 



§22] 



LITERATURE AND LEARNING 



35 



pictures to a rebus stage (cf. § 3 e). This early writing was 
used mainly by the priests in connection with the worship of 
the gods, and so the characters were called hieroglyphs (" priest's 
writing "). The pictures, though shrunken, compose " a delight- 
ful assemblage of birds, snakes, men, tools, stars, and beasts.'* 
Some of these signs grew into real letters, or signs of single 



f 




^1^./..^^^^ 


-s^t^ 




1" ™'ik. 


"■ ■ ■ ■ ; "" - ■ ----- __- - ___5-_ 



Temple at Edfu, a village between Thebes and the First Cataract. 
This is one of the best preserved Egyptian temples. It is the basis of the 
article on Egyptian Architecture in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ninth 
Edition. 



sounds. If the Egyptians could have kept these last and have 
dropped all the rest, they would have had a true alphabet. But 
this final step they never took. Their writing remained to 
the last a curious mixture of thousands of signs of things, of 
ideas, of syllables, and of a few single sounds.^ This was what 
made the position of the scribes so honorable and profitable. 
To master such a system of writing required long schooling, 

1 A good account of the hieroglyphs is given in Keary's Dawn of History, 
298-303. Another may be found in Maspero's Dawn of Civilization, 221-224, 
and there is a pleasant longer account in Clodd's Story of the Alphabet- 



36 



EGYPT 



[§23 



and any one who could write was sure of well-paid employ- 
ment. 

When these characters were formed rapidly upon papyrus 
or pottery (instead of upon stone), the strokes were run to- 
gether, and the char- 
acters were gradually 
modified into a run- 
ning script, which 
was written with a 
reed in black or red 
ink. The dry air ol 
the Egyptian tombs 
has preserved to oui 
day great numbers of 
buried papyrus rolls. 
23. Science.— The 
Nile has been called 
the father of Egyp- 
tian science. The 
frequent need of sur- 
veying the land after 
an inundation had to 
do with the skill of 
the early Egyptians 
in geometry. The 
need of fixing in ad- 
vance the exact time 
of the inundation di- 
rected attention to 
the true " year," and 
so to astronomy. 

Great progress 
was made in both 




Relief from the Temple of Hathor (goddess 
of the sky and of love), at Dendera, 28 miles 
north of Thebes. This temple belongs to a late 
period. Notice the "conventionalized" wings, 
and the royal "cartouches." In Egyptian in- 
scriptions, the name of a king is surrounded by 
a line, as in the upper right-hand corner of this 
relief. Such a figure is called a "cartouch." 
See the Rosetta stone, on page 12, 



these studies. We moderns, who learn glibly from books and 
diagrams the results of this early labor, can hardly understand 
how difficult was the task of these first scientific observers. 



§24] LITERATURE AND LEARNING 37 

Uncivilized peoples count time by " moons" or by " winters" ; but to 
fix the exact length of the year (the time in which the sun apparently 
passes from a given point in the heavens, through its path, back again to 
that point) requires long and patient and skillful observation, and no little 
knowledge. Indeed, to find out that there is such a thing as a " year " is 
no simple matter. If the student will go out into the night, and look upon 
the heavens, with its myriads of twinkling points of light, and then try to 
imagine how the first scientists, without being told by any one else, learned 
to map out the paths of the heavenly bodies, he will better appreciate their 
work. 

The early Egyptian scholars fixed the year at 365^ days, 
less a fraction, and invented a curious leap year arrangement. 
Their " year," together with their calendar of months, we get 
from them through Julius Caesar (slightly improved about three 
hundred years ago by Pope Gregory XIII). In arithmetic the 
Egyptians dealt readily in numbers to millions, with the aid of a 
notation similar to that used later by the Romans. Thus, 3423 
was represented by the Romans : M M M C C C C XX III 
and by the Egyptians: ZZZ ®@e(2RI' 

All this learning is older than the Greek by almost twice as 
long a time as the Greek is older than ours of to-day. No 
wonder, then, that (according to a Greek story) in the last 
days of Egyptian greatness, a priest of Sais exclaimed to a 
traveler from little Athens : " Solon, Solon ! You Greeks 
are mere children. There is no old opinion handed down 
among you by ancient tradition, nor any science hoary with 
age ! " It must be remembered, however, that this science 
was the possession only of the priests, and perhaps of a few 
others. 

24. Religion. — There was a curious mixture of religions. 
Each family worshiped its ancestors. Such ancestor worship is 
found, indeed, among all primitive peoples, along with a belief 
in evil spirits and malicious ghosts. There was also a worship 
of animals. Cats, dogs, bulls, crocodiles, and many other 
animals were sacred. To injure one of these " gods," even by 
accident, was to incur the murderous fury of the people. Prob- 
ably this worship was a degraded kind of ancestor worship 



38 



EGYPT 



[§24 



known as totemism, which is found among many peoples. North 
American Indians of a wolf clan or a bear clan — with a fabled 
wolf or bear for an ancestor — must on no account injure the 
ancestral animal, or " totem." ^ Even Kome, with its legend of 
Romulus nursed by a wolf, gives some curious survivals of an 
earlier worship of this sort. In Egypt, however, the worship 

of animals became more widely 
spread, and took on grosser 
features, than has ever been 
the case elsewhere. 

Above all this, there was a 
worship of countless deities 
and demigods representing 
sun, moon, river, wind, storm, 
trees, and stones. Each vil- 
lage and town had its special 
god to protect it ; and the gods 
of the great capitals became 
national deities. The popu- 
lace thought that these nature 
gods dwelt in the bodies of 
animals ; but with the better 
classes this nature ivorsJiip 
mounted sometimes to a lofty 
and pure worship of one God. 
"God," say some of the in- 
scriptions, "is a spirit : no man 
knoweth his form," and again, — " He is the creator of the 
heavens and the earth and all that is therein." These lofty 
thoughts never spread far among the people ; but a few think- 
ers in Egypt seem to have risen to them earlier than the 
Hebrew prophets did. The following hymn to Aten (the Sun- 
disk), symbol of Light and Life, was written by an Egyptian 
king of the fifteenth century b.c. 




Isis, goddess of the sky, holding her 
son, HoRus, the rising sun. 



1 Students who know Cooper's Last of the Mohicans will recall an illustra- 
tion of totemism. 



§25] RELIGION AND MORALS 39 

"Thy appearing is beautiful in the horizon of heaven, 
O living Aten, the beginning of life ! . . . 
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty. 
Thy beams encompass all lands which thou hast made. 
Thou bindest them with thy love. . . . 
The birds fly in their haunts — 
Their wings adoring thee. . . . 

The small bird in the egg, sounding within the shell — 
Thou givest it breath within the egg. , . . 
How many are the things which thou hast made ! 
Thou Greatest the land by thy will, thou alone, 
With peoples, herds, arfd flocks. . . . 
Thou givest to every man his place, thou framest his life." 

25. The idea of a future life was held in two or three forms. 
Kearly all savage peoples believe that after death the body- 
remains the home of the soul, or at least that the soul lives on 




Sculptured Funeral Couch: the soul is represented crouching by the 
mummy. — From Maspero. 

in a pale, shadowy existence near the tomb. If the body be 
not preserved, or if it be not given proper burial, then, it is 
thought, the soul becomes a wandering ghost, restless and harm- 
ful to men. 

The early Egyptians held some such belief. The universal 



40 



EGYPT 



[§25 



practice of embalming ^ the body before burial was connected 
with it. They wished to preserve the body as the home for 
the soul. In the early tombs, too, there are always found 
dishes in which had been placed food and drink for the ghost, 

just as is done by savage 
peoples to-day. 

These practices con- 
tinued through all ancient 
Egyptian history.^ But 
upon some such basis as 
this there finally grew up, 
among the better classes, 
a belief in a truer im- 
mortality for those who 
deserved it. The dead, 
according to these more 
advanced thinkers, lived 
in a distant Elysium, 
where they had all the 
pleasures of life without 
its pains. This haven, 
however, was only for 
those ghosts who knew 
certain religious formulas to guard against destruction on the 
perilous spirit journey, and who, on arrival, should be declared 
worthy by the "Judges of the Dead." Other souls were 
thought to perish. After this stage of belief was reached, the 
practice of embalming the body may have come to have some 
connection with a growing thought of its resurrection. 

The following noble extract comes from the " Repudiation of Sins." 
This was a statement which the Egyptian believed he ought to be able to 

1 " Embalming " is a process of preparing a dead body with drugs and spices, 
so as to prevent decay. 

2 In part they continue to-day, after these six thousand years of different 
faiths. The Egyptian peasant still buries food and drink with his dead. 
Such customs last long after the ideas on which they were based have faded ; 
but there must always have h^en some live idea in them at first. 




A Tomb Painting, showing offerings to the 
dead. 



§25] 



RELIGION AND MORALS 



41 



say truthfully before the " Judges of the Dead." It shows a keen senfee 
of duty to one's fellow men, which would be highly honorable to any 
religion. 

" Hail unto you, ye lords of Truth ! hail to thee, great god, lord of 
Truth and Justice ! . . . I have not committed iniquity against men ! I have 
not oppressed the poor ! . . . I have not laid labor upon any free man 
beyond that which he wrought for himself ! . . . I have not caused the 
slave to be ill-treated of his master ! I have not starved any man, I have 
not made any to weep, ... 7 have not pulled down the scale of the 









Weighing the Soul in the scales of truth before the gods of the dead.— 
Egyptian relief; after Maspero. (The figures with animal heads are gods 
and their messengers. The human forms represent the dead who are 
being led to judgment.) 

balance I I have not falsified the beam of the balances I have not 
taken away the milk from the mouths of sucklings. . . . 

" Grant that he may come unto you — he that hath not lied nor borne 
false witness, . . . he that hath given bread to the hungry and drink to 
him that was athirst, and that hath clothed the naked with garments/' 

Some other declarations in this statement run : " I have not blas- 
phemed; " "I have not stolen; " "I have not slain any man treacher- 
ously;" "I have not made false accusation;" "I have not eaten my 
heart with envy." These five contain the substance of half of the Ten 
Commandments,— hundreds of years before Moses brought the tables ot 
stone to the Children of Israel. 



42 EGYPT [§26 

26. Moral Character. — The ideal of character, indicated 
above, is contained in many other Egyptian inscriptions. ThviSj 
some three thousand years before Christ, a noble declares in 
his epitaph : " I have caused no child of tender years to mourn; 
I have despoiled no widow; I have driven away no toiler of 
the soil [who asked for help] , . . None about me have been 
unfortunate or starving in my time." ^ Of course, like other 
people, the Egyptian fell short of his ideal. On the other hand, 
it is not fair to expect him to come up to our modern standard 
in all ways. The modesty and refinement which we value were 
lacking among the Egyptians ; but they were a kindly people. 
The sympathy expressed by their writers for the poor (§ 15) is 
a note not heard elsewhere in ancient literature. Scholars 
agree in giving the Egyptians high praise as "more moral, 
sympathetic, and conscientious than any other ancient people." 
These words belong to Professor Petrie, the great authority on 
Egyptian antiquities. The same scholar sums up the matter 
thus : " The Egyptian, without our Christian sense of sin or 
self-reproach, sought out a fair and noble life. . . . His aim 
was to be an easy, good-natured, quiet gentleman, and to make 
life as agreeable as he could to all about him." 

THE STORY 

27. The Old Kingdom. — It is convenient to mark off seven 
periods in the history of Egypt (§§ 27-33). For more than a 
thousand years after Menes (3400-2400 B.C.), the capital re- 
mained at Memphis in Lower Egypt. This period is known as 
the Old Kingdom. It is marked by the complete consolidation 
of the country under the pharaohs, by the building of the 
pyramids and sphinxes, and by the rapid development of the 
civilization which we have been studying. The only names we 
care much for in this age are Menes and Cheops (§ 21). 

28. The Middle Kingdom. — Toward 2400 B.C., the power of 
the pharaohs declined ; but the glory of the monarchy was re- 

1 The same ideas of duty are set forth more ai length in extracts given iv 
Davis' Meadings, Vol. I, Nos. 9 and 10. 



§281 



THE POLITICAL STORY 



43 



stored by a new line of kings at Thebes in the upper valley. 
Probably this was the result of civil war between Upper and 
Lower Egypt. The Theban line of pharaohs are known as 
the Middle Kingdom. Their rule lasted some four hundred 
years (2400-2000 b.c), and makes the second period. The two 
features of this period are foreign conquest and a new develop- 
ment of resources at home. 
Ethiopia, on the south, 
was subdued, with many 
Negro tribes ; and parts 
of Syria were conquered; 
but the chief glory of this 
age, and of all Egyptian 
history, was the develop- 
ment of the marvelous 
system of irrigation that 
has been described in § 17 
above. The pharaohs of 
this period, in happy con- 
trast with the vain and 
cruel pyramid-builders, 
cared most to encourage 
trade, explore unknown 
regions, improve roads, 
establish wells and reser- 
voirs. A king of 2200 b.c. 
boasts in his epitaph — 
probably with reason — 
that all his commands had "ever increased the love" of his 
subjects toward him. Egyptian commerce now reached to 
Crete on the north, and probably to other islands and coasts 
of the Mediterranean, and to distant parts of Ethiopia on the 
south. One of the greatest works of the time was the opening 
of a canal from a mouth of the Nile to the Red Sea, so that 
ships might pass from that sea to the Mediterranean. This 
gave a great impulse to trade with Arabia (§ 19). 




Cheops (more properly called Khufu), 
builder of the Great Pyramid : a portrait- 
statue discovered in 1902 by Flinders 
Petrie. As Professor Petrie says, "The 
first thing that strikes us is the enormous 
driving power of the man." 



44 



EGYPT 



[§29 



29. The Hyksos. — This outburst of glory was followed by 
a strange decay (2000-1600 b.c. — the " third period "), during 
which Egypt became the prey of ro^'ing tribes from Arabia. 
From the title of their chiefs, these conquerors were called 
Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings. They maintained themselves in 
Egypt about two hundred years. For a time they harried the 
land cruelly, as invaders; then, from a capital in the lower 
Delta, they ruled the country through tributary Egyptian 




Sculptors at work on colossal figures. — From an Egyptian relief. 



kings ; and finally they acquired the civilization of the country 
and became themselves Egyptian sovereigns. It was this 
Arabian conquest that first brought the horse into Egypt (§ 18). 
After this period, kings and nobles are represented in war 
chariots and in pleasure carriages. 

30. The New Empire. — A line of native monarchs had re- 
mained in power at Thebes, as under-kings. About 1600 b.c , 
after a long struggle, these princes expelled the Hyksos. Dur- 
ing this " fourth period," 1600-1330, Egypt reached its highest 
pitch of military grandeur. The long struggle with the Hyksos 
had turned the attention of the people from industry to war; 
and the horse made long marches easier for the leaders. A 
series of mighty kings recovered Ethiopia, conquered all western 
Syria, and at last reached the Euphrates, ruling for a brief time 
even over Babylonia, 



§30] 



THE POLITICAL STORY 



45 



Here, on the banks of a mighty river, strangely like their 
own Nile, they found the home of another civilization, equal 
to their own, but different. For nearly four thousand years, 




these two earliest civilizations had been growing up in igno- 
rance of each other.^ Now a new era opened. The long ages 
of isolation gave way to an age of intercourse.^ The vast dis- 

1 The Egyptians did know something of the Euphrates culture, because it 
had, long before, extended into Syria (§ 38), which Egyptian armies and 
traders had visited occasionally for some centuries ; but now first they saw it 
in its full magnificence. 

2 Egypt did not admit foreigners into her own Nile district, except the 
official representatives of other governments. But the Syrian lands were the 
middle ground where the two civilizations held intercourse. 



46 



EGYPT 



[§31 



tricts between the Euphrates and the Nile became covered with 
a network of roads. These were garrisoned here and there by 
fortresses ; and over them, for centuries, there passed hurrying 
streams of officials, couriers, and merchants. The brief su- 
premacy of Egypt over the Euphrates district was also the first 
political union of the Orient. In some degree it paved the way 
for the greater empires to follow, — of Assyria, of Persia, of 
Alexander, and of Rome. The most famous Egyptian rulers of 

this age are TliHtmosis^ 
III, and Barneses II. The 
student will find interest- 
ing passages about both 
these monarchs in Davis' 
Readings, Vol. I. 

31. Decline. — A long 
age of weakness (the 
"fifth period," about 
1330-640) soon invited 
attack. The priests had 
drawn into their hands a 
large part of the land of 
Egypt. This land paid no 
taxes, and the pharaohs 
felt obliged to tax more 
heavily the already over- 
burdened peasantry. Population declined; revenues fell off. 
Early in this period of decline, the Hebrews escaped from 
Egypt. Driven by famine, they had come from Syria during 
the rule of the Arabian Hyksos, who were friendly to them. 
The great monarchs of the New Empire reduced them to serf- 
dom. Now they escaped from a weak pharaoh, to seek refuge 
again in the desert (§ 59). 

The government was no longer strong enough in armies for 
the defense of the frontiers. Dominion in both Africa and 




Sculptured Head of Thutmosis III 
(about 1470 B.C.), who in twelve great 
campaigns first carried Egyptian arms 
from the isthmus to Nineveh. 



1 All difficult proper names have the pronunciation shown in tlie index. 



§32] 



THE POLITICAL STORY 



47 



Asia shrank, until Egypt was driven back within her ancient 
bounds. The Hittites (§ 7), descending from the slopes of the 
Taurus Mountains (map, page 45), overthrew Egyptian power 
in Syri?.; and the tribes of the Sahara, aided by "strange 
peoples of the sea" (Greeks among them), threatened to seize 
even the Delta itself. In 
730 B.C. the Ethiopians 
overran the country ; and, 
in 672, Egypt Jiyially he- 
came subject, to Assyria 
(§ 40). 

Dates are not fixed exactly 
in Egyptian history until 
about this time. For all 
earlier periods, a margin of a 
century or two must be al- 
lowed for errors in calculation. 
We know the order of events, 
but not their precise year. 

This vagueness is due to 
the fact that ancient peoples 
did not count time as we do 
from one fixed point : instead, 
they reckoned from the build- 
ing of a city, or from the be- 
ginning of the reigns of their 
kings. An inscription may tell us that a certain event took place in the 
tenth year of the reign of Rameses ; but we do not know positively in 
just what year Rameses began to reign. 

32. The Sixth Period, 653-525. — After twenty years of 
Assyrian rule, Psammetichus restored Egyptian independence 
and became the pharaoh. He had been a military adventurer, 
apparently of foreign blood; and had been employed by the 
Assyrians as a tributary prince. During her former greatness, 
although her own traders visited other lands, Egypt had kept 
herself jealously closed against strangers. But Psammetichus 
threw open the doors to foreigners. In particular, he welcomed 




Rameses II, a conquering pharaoh of about 
1375 B.C. This colossal statue stands in 
the ruins of the palace at Luxor. 



PSAMMETICHUS. 




4:S EGYPT [§ 33 

the Greeks, who were just coming into notice as soldiers an^ 
sailors. Not only did individual Greek travelers (§§ 21, 23, 
156) visit the country, but a Greek colony, Naucratis, was es- 
tablished there, and large numbers of Greek soldiers served in 
the army. Indeed Sc-is, the new capital of Psammetichus 
and his son, thronged with Greek adventurers. This was the 
time, accordingly, when Egypt ^^ fulfilled her mission among 
the nations." She " had lit the torch of civilization " ages be- 
fore; new she passed it on to the western world through this 
younger race. 

Neco, the second monarch of this new line of kings, ruled 
about 600 B.C. He was greatly interested in reviving the old 
Egyptian commerce. His 
n ^ ^ — ^ efforts to restore Egyptian 
I J^"^^^ influence in Syria and Ara- 
bia were foiled by the rise 
of a new empire in the Eu- 
phrates valley (§ 4V) ; and he failed also in a noble attempt 
to reopen the ancient canal connecting the Red Sea with 
the Mediterranean (§ 28). But, in searching for another 
route for vessels between those waters, he did succeed in a re- 
markable attempt. One of his ships sailed around Africa, 
starting from the Eed Sea and returning, three years later, by 
the Mediterranean. Herodotus (§ 21), who tells us the story, 
adds : " On their return the sailors reported (others may be- 
lieve them but I will not) that in sailing from east to west 
around Africa they had the sun on their right hand." This 
report, which Herodotus could not believe, is good proof to us 
that the story of the sailors was true. 

33. Egyptian History merges in Greek and Roman History. — 
The last age of Egyptian independence lasted only 128 years. 
Then followed the "seventh period," — one of long dependence 
upon foreign powers. Persia conquered the country in 525 b.c. 
(§ 72), and ruled it for two centuries under Persian governors. 
Then Alexander the Great established Greek sway over all the 
Persian world (§§ 278 ff.). At his death Egypt became again a 



§33] THE POLITICAL STORY 49 

separate state ; but it was ruled by the Greek Ptolemies from 
their new Greek capital at Alexandria. Cleopatra, the last of 
this line of monarchs, fell before Augustus Caesar in 30 b.c, and 
Egypt became a Eoman province. Native rule has never been 
restored. 



Exercises. — 1. Make a summary of the things we owe to Egypt. 

2. "What can you learn from those extracts upon Egypt in Davis' Beadings, 
which have not been referred to in this chapter ? (If the class have 
enough of those valuable little books in their hands, this topic may make 
all or part of a day's lesson : if only a copy or two is in the library, one 
student may well make a short report to the class, with brief readings.) 

3. Do you regard the first pyramid or Lake Moeris or the canal from the 
Nile to the Red Sea as the truest monument to Egyptian greatness ? 

4. Students who wish to read further upon ancient Egypt will find the 
titles of three or four of the best books for their purpose in the Appendix, 
— Baikie, Breasted, Hommel, or Myers. 



CHAPTER III 

THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES 

GEOGRAPHY 

34. The Two Rivers. — Across Asia, from the Red to the 
Yellow Sea, stretches a mighty desert. Its smaller and west- 
ern part, a series of low, sandy plains, is really a continuation 
of the African desert. The eastern portion (which lies almost 
wholly beyond the field of our ancient history, § 4) consists of 
lofty plateaus broken up by rugged mountains. The two parts 
are separated from each other by a patch of luxuriant vegeta- 
tion, reaching away from the Persian Gulf to the northwest. 

This oasis is the work of the Tigris and Euphrates. (In this 
connection see map facing p. 12.) These twin rivers have 
never interested men so much as the more mysterious Nile has ; 
but they have played a hardly less important part in history. 
Rising on opposite sides of the snow-capped mountains of 
Armenia, they approach each other by great sweeps until they 
form a common valley ; then they flow in parallel channels for 
the greater part of their course, uniting just before they reach 
the Gulf. The land between them has always been named 
from them. The Jews called it *• Syria of the Two Rivers " ; 
the Greeks, Mesopotamia, or " Between the Rivers " ; the mod- 
ern Arabs, " The Island." 

35. Divisions of the Valley. — The valley had three distinct 
parts, two of which were of special importance. The first of 
these was Chaldea,^ the district near the mouth of the rivers. 

1 This is the name that has been used for many centuries. It seems best to 
keep it, though we know now that it is inaccurate for the early period. The 
Chaldeans proper did not enter the valley until long after its civilization 
began. 

50 



§ 36] GEOGRAPHY 61 

Like the delta of the Nile, Chaldea consisted of deposits of 
soil carried out in the course of ages into the sea. In area it 
equaled modern Denmark, and was twice the size of the real 
Egypt. As with Egypt, its fertility in ancient times was main- 
tained by an annual overflow of the river, regulated by dikes, 
canals, and reservoirs. Wheat and barley are believed to have 
been native there. Certainly it was from Chaldea that they 
spread west to Europe. 

The Euphrates district is more dependent upon artificial aids for irri- 
gation than the Nile valley is ; and in modern times Chaldea has lost its 
ancient fertility. During the past thousand years, under Turkish rule, 
the last vestiges of the ancient engineering works have gone to ruin. 
The myriads of canals are choked with sand ; and, as a result, in this 
early home of civilization, the uncontrolled overflow of the river turns the 
eastern districts into a dreary marsh ; while on the west the desert has 
drifted in, to cover the most fertile soil in the world ; — and the sites of 
scores of mighty cities are only shapeless mounds, where sometimes 
nomad Arabs camp for a night. 

To the north of Chaldea, the rich plain gives way to a 
rugged table-land. The more fertile portion lies on the Tigris 
side, and is the second important part of the valley. It was 
finally to take the name Assyria. 

The western half of the upper valley is sometimes called 
Mesopotamia Proper. This third district was less fertile than 
the others, and never became the seat of a powerful state. It 
opened, however, upon the northern parts of Syria, and so made 
part of the great roadway between the Euphrates and the Nile. 

THE STORY 

36. The People. — The rich Euphrates valley, like the Nile 
region, attracted invaders from all sides in prehistoric times. 
It was less completely walled in, indeed, than Egypt (§§ 6, 7); 
and such inroads therefore continued longer and on a larger 
scale than in the Nile lands. Successive waves of conquering 
tribes from the Arabian desert finally established a Semitic^ 

1 Semites and Semitic are explained in a paragraph on the following page 



52 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§ 3^ 

language in Chaldea; but the bulk of the inhabitants never 
became Semites in appearance or blood. They kept in large 
measure the characteristics of older peoples, who had originally 
developed the civilization of the valley, and who had spoken a 
tongue which in historic times had become a " dead language." 
That older civilization, however, had not taken so firm a 
hold on the Tigris district ; and the Assyrians became mainly 
Semitic, — allied to the Arabs in blood. The men of the south 
(Chaldeans, or Babylonians) were quick-witted, industrious, 
gentle, pleasure-loving, fond of literature and of peaceful pur- 
suits. The hook-nosed, larger-framed, fiercer Assyrians cared 
mainly for war and the gains of commerce, and had only such 
arts and learning as they could borrow from their neighbors. 
They delighted in cruelty and gore. In the old inscriptions, 
their kings brag incessantly of torturing, flaying alive, and 
impaling thousands of captives. 

The languages of the Arabs, Jews, Assyrians, and of some other neigh- 
boring peoples, such as the ancient Phoenicians (§ 54), are closely related. 
The whole group of such languages is called Semitic, and the peoples 
who speak them are called Semites (descendants of Shem). Similarity 
of languages does not necessarily prove that the peoples are related in 
blood : it means more commonly only that their civilizations have been 
derived me from another. But these Semitic races do seem to have had 
a close blood relationship. 

37. The Early City-States. — As in Egypt, so in this double 
valley there clustered many cities at a very early time, — before 
5000 B.C. Each such city was a " state " (§ 11, note) by itself, 
under its own king, and it controlled the surrounding hamlets 
and farming territory. These little states waged innumerable 
wars with one another and with outside invaders ; but they also 
managed to develop the culture which was to characterize the 
country in its historic age. Each city, indeed, had a literature 
of its own, written in libraries of brick (§ 48), and our scholars 
are learning more of this ancient period every day from the 
study of the remains recently discovered. Only four cities, 
out of scores, will be mentioned in this book, — four leading 



§38] EXPANSION INTO SYRIA 53 

cities, whose names, too, are familiar from the Old Testament, 
— Accad (Agade), Ur, Babylon, and Nineveh. The first three 
are in the southern Euphrates district : Nineveh is in Assyria, 
on the Tigris. 

Gradually, war united the rival states into larger ones ; and 
then contests for power among these, with outside conquests, 
gave rise to three great empires, whose story we shall survey 
rapidly. Two of these empires were in the south, with their 
chief center at Babylon (First and Second Babylonian Em- 
pires). Between their two periods there arose the still 
mightier Assyrian Empire, with Nineveh for its capital. 

An empire is a state containing many sub-states and one ruling state. 
Egypt is called a kingdom while it was confined to the Nile valley, but 
an empire when its sway extended over Ethiopia and Syria (§ 30). 

38. Early Attempts at Empire. — About 2800 b.c, Sargon,^ king 
of Accad, made himself ruler of all Chaldea. Then in a series of 
victorious campaigns, he carried his authority over the northern 
part of the river valley, and even to the distant Mediterranean 
coast. His empire fell to pieces with his death, from lack of 
organization ; hut his campaigns had transplanted the Euphrates 
culture into Syria to take lasting root there. Chaldean traders 
spread the seed more widely. Eor more than two thousand 
years, the fashions of Chaldea were copied in the cities of 
Syria ; and her cuneiform ^ script was used, and her literature 
was read, by great numbers of people all over western Asia. 

Ur succeeded Accad as mistress of the land. But the cities of 
the valley were soon overrun by new barbarians from the Ara- 
bian desert. These conquerors finally adopted thoroughly the 
civilization of the country, and took Babylon for their chief city. 

1 The Babylonians of about 600 b.c. rediscovered a certain inscription of 
the son of Sargon, long buried even in that day, and fixed his date from it at 
3200 years before their own time. Very recent discoveries, however, prove 
that they placed him a thousand years too early. Davis' Readings, Vol. I, 
No. 17, gives the Babylonian story. 

2 See § 47 for explanation of this term. 



54 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§39 

39. The First Babylonian Empire begins with the rule of 
Hammurabi, who lived about as many years before the birth 
of Christ as we do after it. In 1917 b.c. he completed the 
consolidation of the states of the Euphrates valley into one 
empire. Later, he extended the rule of Babylon to the bounds 
of Sargon's conquests — and with more lasting results. Ever 
since, the name Babylon has remained a symbol for magnifi- 
cence and power. 

During the fourth century of this empire {about 1500 B.C.), it 
came in contact with the " New Empire " of Egypt to which for a 
time it lost most of its dominions (§ 30). 

40. The Assyrian Empire. — Assyria first comes to notice in 
the nineteenth century b.c. It was then a dependent province, 
belonging to the Babylonian Empire. Six hundred years later 
it had become a rival ; but its supremacy begins two centuries 
later still, about 1100 b.c. New invaders from Arabia were 
harrying the Euphrates country ; and this made it easier for 
Tiglath-Pileser I, king of Assyria, to master Babylonia. This 
king ruled from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean ; but 
after his death his dominions fell apart. The real Assyrian 
Empire dates from 745 b.c. 

In that year, the adventurer Put seized the throne. He had 
been a gardener. Now he took the name of the first great con- 
queror, Tiglath-Pileser (III), and soon established the most 
powerful empire the world had so far seen. It was larger than 
any that had gone before it (map opposite), and it ivas better 
orgaiiized. In the case of each of the earlier empires, the sub- 
ject kingdoms had been left under the native rulers, as tribu- 
tary kings. Such princes could never lose a natural ambition 
to become again independent sovereigns ; and if they attempted 
revolt, the people were sure to rally loyally to them as to their 
proper rulers. Thus this loose organization tempted constantly 
to rebellion. It now gave way to a stronger one. The subject 
kingdoms were made more completely into parts of one state 
and were ruled by Assyrian lieuteyiants (satraps). We call such 
subordinate parts of an empire by the name provinces. This 



MO] 



THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 



55 



new invention in government was Assyria's chief bequest to the 
later world. 

The next great Assyrian king was Sargon II, who carried 
away the Ten Tribes of Israel into captivity (722 B.C.). This 
transplanting of a rebellious people, or at least of the better 
classes among them, to prevent rebellion, was a favorite device 




of the Assyrians. Longfellow's picture, in Evangeline, of the 
removal of a small population in modern times with all possi- 
ble gentleness, will help us to imagine the misery that must 
have come from such transportation of whole nations by over- 
land journeys of a thousand miles. 

Sargon's son, /Sennacherib, is the most famous Assyrian 
monarch. He subdued the king of Judah,^ but he will be 



1 2 Kings xviii. For the Assyrian story see Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 12. 



56 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§41 

better remembered from the Jewish account of a mysterious 
destruction of his army, perhaps in another expedition, — 
smitten by "the angel of the Lord." This is the incident 
commemorated by Byron's lines : — 

"The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold, 
And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold. 

Like leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown, 
That host, on the morrow, lay withered and strown." 

The empire recovered quickly from this disaster; and in 
672 B.C. Sennacherib's son, Esarhaddon, subdued Egypt (§ 31). 
TJiis icas the second iJoJitiml union of the East. It was much 
more complete than the first one of several centuries earlier 
(§ 30) ; and the territory was larger, for the Assyrians were 
reaching out west and east into the new regions of Asia Minor 
and of Media on the Plateau of Iran. 

41. Fall of Assyria. — This wide rule was short-lived, — 
happily so, for no other great empire has ever so delighted in 
blood. Disagreeable as it is, the student should read one of 
the records in which an Assyrian king exults over his fiendish 
cruelties. The following one is by Assur-Natsir-Pul, 850 b.c. : — 

"They did not embrace my feet. With combat and with slaughter I 
attacked the city and captured it ; three thousand of their fighting men 
I slew with the sword. Their spoil, their goods, their oxen, and their 
sheep I carried away. The numerous captives I burned with fire. I cap- 
tured many of the soldiers alive. I cut off the hands and feet of some ; 
I cut off the noses, the ears, and the fingers of others ; the eyes of the 
numerous soldiers I put out, I built up a pyramid of the living and a 
pyramid of heads. In the middle of them I suspended their heads on 
vine stems in the neighborhood of their city. Their young men and their 
maidens I burned as a holocaust. The city I overthrew, dug up, and 
burned with fire. I annihilated it." 

Of another city: "The nobles, as many as had revolted, I flayed; 
with their skins I covered the pyramid. Some of them I immured in the 
midst of the pyramid ; others above the pyramid I impaled on stakes ; 
others round about the pyramid I planted on stakes." 

See also Sennacherib's boast, at the close of No. 12 in Davis' Headings, 
Vol. L 



§42] THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE 57 

Against such cruelty and against the crushing Assyrian 
taxation, there rankled a passionate hatred in the hearts of the 
oppressed peoples.^ After twenty years of subjection, Egypt 
broke away. Twenty years later, Babylon followed. Scythian 
hordes poured in repeatedly from the north, to devastate the 
empire ; and in 606 the new power of the Medes (§ 72), aided 
by Babylonia, captured Nineveh itself. The Assyrian Empire 
disappeared, and the proud " city of blood," which had razed 
so many other cities, was given over to sack and pillage. Two 
hundred years later the Greek Xenophon could not even learn 
the name of the crumbling ruins, when he came upon them, in the 
"Retreat of the Ten Thousand" (§ 257). All signs of human 
habitation vanished, and the very site was forgotten, until its 
rediscovery in recent times. 

Ancient and modern judgments upon Assyria are at one. 
Nahum closed his passionate exultation, — ^' All that hear the 
news of thy fate shall clap their hands over thee; for whom 
hath not thy wickedness afflicted continually." And says Dr. 
Davis (Introduction to No. 14 of his Readings, Vol. I) : " Its 
luxuries and refinements were all borrowed from other lands : 
its insatiable love of conquest and slaughter was its own." 

42. The New Babylonian Empire. — Babylon had risen in 
many a fierce revolt during the five centuries of Assyrian rule. 
Sennacherib declares, with great exaggeration certainly, that 
on one occasion he razed it to the ground in punishment : " I 
laid the houses waste from foundation to roof with fire. 
Temple and tower I tore down and threw into the canal. I 
dug ditches through the city, and laid waste its site. Greater 
than the deluge was its annihilation." 

In 625 came a successful rebellion. Then (as noticed in § 41) 
Babylonia and Media soon shared between them the old Assyr- 
ian Empire. The Second Babylonian Empire lasted less than 
a century. The middle half of the period — the most glorious 

1 The student should read the terrible denunciation of Nineveh by the 
Hebrew prophet in the year of its fall (Book of Nahum, iii, 1-19). Cf. also 
Isaiah xiii, 16-22, and Jeremiah 1 and li. 



58 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§43 

part, 604-561 b.c. — falls to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The 
reviving Egyptian power, under Neco, was checked in its. effort 
to extend its sway into Asia (§ 32). Rebellious Jerusalem was 
sacked, and the Jews were carried away into the Babylonian 
captivity. The ancient limits of the First Empire were 
restored, with some additions. Babylon was rebuilt on a more 

magnificent scale, and 



T>Hr>T^t^Yfe^T>^«^ 



Nebuchadnezzar. 



the ancient engineer- 
ing works were re- 
newed.^ But in 538, 
soon after this reign, 

Babylon fell before the rising power of the Persians (§ 72), 

and her independent history came to an end. 

SOCIETY, INDUSTRY, CULTURE 

43. The king was surrounded with everything that could 
awe and charm the masses. Extraordinary magnificence and 
splendor removed him from the common people. He gave au- 
dience, seated on a golden throne covered with a purple canopy 
which was supported by pillars glittering with precious stones. 
All who came into his presence prostrated themselves in the 
dust until bidden to rise. His rule was absolute ; but he worked 
through a large body of trusted officials, largely taken from the 
priests. 

44. Classes of Society. — Chaldea had no class like the nobles 
of Egypt. Wealth counted for more, and birth for less, than in 
that country. There were really only two classes, — rich and 
poor, with a mass of slaves. 

The peasants tilled the rich land in misery. As in Egypt 
they paid for their holdings with half of the produce. In a 
poor year, this left them in debt for seed and living. The 
creditor could charge exorbitant interest ; and, if not paid, he 
could levy not only upon the debtor's small goods, but also upon 
wife or child, or upon the person of the farmer himself, for 



1 Nebuchadnezzar's own account is given in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 13. 



§44] 



SOCIETY AND CULTURE 



59 



slavery. As early as the time of Hammurabi (§§ 39, 45), how. 
ever, the law ordered that such slavery should last only three 

years. n - ^ 

The wealthy class included landowners, officials, professional 

men, money lenders, and merchants. The merchant in partic- 

Hlar was a prominent figure. The position of Chaldea, at the 




Colossal Man-beast in Alabaster. - From the Palace of Sargon (now in 

the Louvre). 

head of the Persian Gulf, made its cities the natural mart of 
exchange between India and Syria; and for centuries, Babylon 
was the great commercial center of the ancient world, far more 
truly than London has been of our modern world. Even the 
extensive wars of Assyria, cruel as they were, were not merely 
for love of conquest : they were largely commercial in purpose,-- 
to secure the trade of Syria and Phoenicia, and to ruin in 



60 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§45 

those lands the trade centers^ that were competing with 
Nineveh. 

45. Law and Property. — In 1902 a.d., a French explorer 
found a valuable set of Babylonian inscriptions containing a 
collection of 280 laws. This "code" asserts that it was 
enacted by Hammurabi (§ 39). It is the oldest known code of 
laws in the world ; and it shows that the men for whom it was 
made were already far advanced in civilization, with many 




Assyrian Contract Tablet in Duplicate. — The outer tablet is broken 
and shows part of the inner original, which could always be consulted if 
the outside was thought to have been tampered with. 

complex relations with one another. It tries to guard against 
bribery of judges and witnesses, against careless medical 
practice, against ignorant or dishonest building contractors. 
(About a tenth of the code is reproduced in Davis' Readiiigs, 
Vol. I, No. 20.) 

Other discoveries prove that rights of property were carefully 
guarded. Deeds, wills, marriage settlements, legal contracts 
of all kinds, survive by tens of thousands. The numerous 
signatures of witnesses, in a variety of " hand writings," testify 
to a widespread ability to write the difficult cuneiform text. 

1 Damascus, Jerusalem, Tyre, and others whose names have less meaning to 
as to-day. Tyre, often besieged and reduced to a tributary state, was not 
actually captured, owing to her mastery of the sea. 



§471 



SOCIETY AND CULTURE 



61 



From the contracts we learn that a woman could control property 
and carry on business independently of her husband. 

46. Law and Men. — Criminal law is the term applied to 
that portion of a code which relates, not to property, but to 
the personal relations of men to one another. Here the code 




Assyrian Tablets, showing the older hieroglyphics and the later cuneiform 
equivalents (apparently for the purpose of instruction) . 

of Hammurabi in many provisions reminds us of the stern 
Jewish law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 

" If a man has caused, a man of rank to lose an eye, one of his own 
eyes must be struck out. If he has shattered the limb of a man of rank, 
let his own limb be broken. If he has knocked out the tooth of a man 
of rank, his tooth must be knocked out," 

Injuries to a poor man, however, could be atoned for in 
money. 

" If he has caused a poor man to lose an eye, or has shattered a limb, 
let him pay one maneh of silver" (about $32.00 in our values). 

47. Cuneiform Writing. — The early inhabitants of Chaldea 
had a system of hieroglyphs not unlike the Egyptian. At first 
they painted these on the papyrus, which grew in the Euphrates 
as well as in the Nile. At a later time they came to press the 



62 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§48 

characters with a sharp metal instrument into clay tablets 
(which were then baked to preserve them). This change of 
material led to a change in the written characters. The pic- 
tures shriveled and flattened into wedge-shaped symbols, which 
look like scattered nails with curiously battered heads. (This 
writing is called cuneiform, from the Latin cuneus, wedge.) 

The Semitic conquerors adopted this writing and used it in 
such minute characters — six lines to an inch sometimes — 
that some authorities believe magnifying glasses must have 
been used. This surmise was strengthened when the explorer 
Layard found a lens among the ruins of the Nineveh library. 

48. Literature. — The remains of Chaldean literature are 
abundant. Each of the numerous cities that studded the valley 
of the twin rivers had its library, sometimes several of them. 
A library was a collection of clay tablets or bricks covered with 
cuneiform writing. In Babylon the ruins of one library con- 
tained over thirty thousand tablets, of about the date 2700 e.g., 
all neatly arranged in order. Originally the libraries contained 
papyrus rolls also, but these the climate has utterly destroyed. 

A tablet, with its condensed writing, corresponds fairly well 
to a chapter in one of our books. Each tablet had its library 
number stamped upon it, and the collections were carefully 
catalogued. The kings prided themselves on keeping libraries 
open to the public ; and Professor Sayce is sure that " a con- 
siderable portion of the inhabitants (including many women) 
could read and write." ^ 

The literary class studied the "dead" language of the pre- 
Semitic period, as we study Latin; and the merchants were 
obliged to know the languages spoken in Syria in that day. 
The libraries contained dictionaries and grammars of these 
languages, and also many translations of foreign books, in 
columns parallel with the originals. Scribes were constantly 
employed in copying and editing ancient texts, and they seem 

1 The evidence he collects in his Social Life among the Babylonians, 41-43. 
** The ancient civilized East was almost as full of literary activity as is the 
world of to-day," adds the same eminent scholar, in an extreme statement. 



S481 



SOCIETY AND CULTURE 



63 




^[^^gS3^°F-tT-j^f?riliTiiT™^™ ■ .^ ^^ Britisll 

Museum-, after bayce. 



64 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§ 49 

to have been very careful in their work : when they could not 
make out a word in an ancient copy, they tell us so and leave 
the space blank. 

49. Science. — In Geometry the Chaldeans made as much 
advance as the Egyptians ; in Arithmetic more. Their notation 
combined the decimal and duodecimal systems. Sixty was a 
favorite unit, because it is divisible by both ten and twelve : 
_ it was used as the hundred is 

by us. 

Scientific Medicine was hin- 
dered by a belief in charms 
and magic; and even Astron- 
omy was studied largely as a 
means of fortune-telling by 
the stars.^ Some of our boy- 
ish forms for " counting out " 
— " eeny, meeny, miny, moe," 
etc. — are remarkably like the 
An Assyrian Dog.— Relief on a clay solemn forms of divination 
tablet; after Rawiinson. ^^^^ ^^ Chaldean magicians. 

Still, in spite of such superstition, important progress was 
made. As in Egypt, the level plains and clear skies invited 
to an early study of the heavenly bodies. The Chaldeans fore- 
told eclipses, made star maps, and marked out on the heavens 
the apparent yearly path of the sun. The ^' signs of the zodiac " 
in our almanacs come from these early astronomers. Every 
great city had its lofty observatory and its royal astronomer, 
and in Babylon, in 331 b.c, Alexander the Great found an un- 
broken series of observations running back nineteen hundred 
years. As we get from the Egyptians our year and months, so 
from the Chaldeans we get the week (with its " seventh day of 

iFor hundreds of years the stars were believed to have influence upon 
human life, and a class of fortune tellers claimed to be able to discover this 
influence, and to foretell the future, by studying the heavens. This pretended 
science is called astrology, to distinguish it from real astronomy. It lasted in 
England as late as the days of Queen Elizabeth ; and all through the middle 
ages in Europe an astrologer was called " a Chaldean." 




§50] 



SOCIETY AND CULTURE 



65 



rest for the soul ") and the division of the day into hours, with 
the subdivision into minutes. Their notation, by 12 and 60, we 
still keep on the face of every clock. The sundial and the water 
dock were Assyrian inventions to measure time. 




Fragment of Asstbtan " DEiiUGE-TABLET," with part of the story 
of a deluge. 

50. Chaldean Legends. — Besides this scientific and scholarly 
literature, the Babylonians had many stories, including an 
ancient collection of legends which claimed to carry their his- 
tory back seven hundred thousand years, to the creation of 



66 



THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES 



[§51 



the world. Their story of the creation resembled, in many- 
features, the later Hebrew Genesis ; and one of their legends 
concerned a " deluge," from which only one man — favorite of 
the gods — was saved in an ark, with his family and with one 
pair of every sort of beasts. These stories, however, have an 
exaggerated style, and lack the noble simplicity of the Bible 
narrative. 

51. Industries and their Arts. — More than the other ancient 
peoples, the men of the Euphrates made practical use of their 
science. They understood the lever and pulley, and used the 
arch in making vaulted drains and aqueducts. They invented 

the patterns wheel and 
an excellent system of 
iveights and measures. 
Their measures were 
based on the length of' 
the finger, breadth of 
the hand, and length 
of the arm ; and, with 
the system of weights, 
they have come down 
to us through the 
Greeks. The sym- 
bols in the "Apothe- 
caries' Table" in our arithmetics are Babylonian in origin. 
Books upon agriculture passed on the Babylonian knowledge 
of that subject to the Greeks and Arabs. They had surpass- 
ing skill in cutting gems, enameling, inlaying. Every well-to-do 
person had his seal with which to sign letters and legal papers. 
The cheaper sort were of baked clay, but the richer men used 
engraved precious stones, in the form of cylinders, arranged to 
revolve on an axis of metal. Thousands of these have been 
found. Some of them, made of jasper or chalcedony or onyx, 
are works of art which it would be hard to surpass to-day. 
Assyrian looms, too, produced the finest of muslins and of fleecy 
woolens, to which the dyer gave the most brilliant colors. The 




Assyrian Cylinder Seals. 



§52] 



SOCIETY AND CULTURE 



67 



rich wore long robes of those cloths, decorated with embroider., 
ies. Tapestries and carpets, also, wonderfully colored, were 
woven, for walls and floors and beds. In many such industries, 
little advance has been made since, so far as the products are 
concerned. 

52. Architecture and Sculpture. — The Euphrates valley had 
no stone and little wood. Brick making, therefore, was, next 
to agriculture, the most important industry. Ordinary houses 




Impression from a Kjng's Cylinder Seal. — The figure in the air repre- 
sents the god who protects the king in his perils. 

were built of cheap sun-dried bricks. The same material was 
used for all but the outer courses of the walls of the palaces 
and temples ^ ; but for these outside faces, a kiln-baked brick 
was used, much like our own. With only these imperfect 
materials, the Babylonians constructed marvelous tower-temples 
and elevated gardens, in imitation of mountain scenery. The 
"Hanging Gardens," built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his 
wife (from the Median mountains), rose, one terrace upon an- 
other, to a height of one hundred and fifty feet. They were 
counted by the Greeks among the "seven wonders of the 



1 The extensive use of sun-dried hrick in Chaldean cities explains their com- 
plete decay. In the course of ages, after being abandoned, they sank into 
shapeless mounds, indistinguishable from the surrounding plain. 



68 THE TIGRIS^EUPHRATES STATES [§52 

world." The Babylonian imla/ies were usually one story only 
in height, resting upon a raised platform of earth. But the 
temples rose stage upon stage, as the drawing opposite shows, 
with a different color for each story. 

Assyria abounded in excellent stone. Still for centuries her 
builders slavishly used brick, like the people from whom they 
borrowed their art. Finally, however, they came to make use 
of the better material about them for sculpture and for at 
least the facings of their public buildings. Thus in architec- 




A Lion Hunt. — Assyrian relief; from Rawlinson. 

ture and sculpture, though in no other art, Assyria, land of 
stone, excelled Babylonia, land of brick. In the royal palaces, 
especially, the almost unlimited power of the monarchs, and 
their Oriental passion for splendor and color, produced a sump- 
tuous magnificence which the more self -restrained modern world 
never equals. 

The following description of a palace of ancient Nineveh is taken from 
Dr. J. K. Hosmer's The Jews. The passage is partly condensed. 

" Upon a huge, wide-spreading, artificial hill, faced with masonry, for 
a platform, rose cliff-like fortress walls a hundred feet more, wide enough 
for three chariots abreast and with frequent towers shooting up to a still 
loftier height. Sculptured portals, by which stood silent guardians, 
colossal figures in white alabaster, the forms of men and beasts, winged 
and of majestic mien, admitted to the magnificence within. . . . Upward, 
tier above tier, into the blue heavens, ran lines of colonnades, pillars of 
costly cedar, cornices glittering with gold, capitals blazing with vermilion, 
and, between them, voluminous curtains of silk, purple, and scarlet, inter- 



§53] 



RELIGION AND MORALS 



69 



woven with threads of gold. ... In the interior, stretching for miles, 
Uterally for miles, the builder of the palace ranged the illustrated record 
<Df his exploits. . . . The mind grows dizzy with the thought of the 
splendor — the processions of satraps and eunuchs and tributary kings, 
winding up the stairs, and passing in a radiant stream through the halls 
— the gold and embroidery, the ivory and the sumptuous furniture, the 
pearls and the hangings." 

A description with more precise details and less "color" is given in 
Davis' Headings, Vol. I, No. 19. See also No. 18, "An Assyrian City." 



12 ft. 



Section of the Temple of the Seven Spheres, according to a 
" restoration." — From Rawlinson. 

H is a sacred shrine. The seven stages below it were colored in order from the bottom aa 
follows : black, orange, red, golden, yellow, blue, silver. 

53. Religion and Morals. — Babylonians and Assyrians both 
worshiped ancestors. Mingled with this religion was a nature 
worship, with numerous gods and demigods. Ancestor worship 
is usually accompanied by a belief in witchcraft and in un- 
friendly ghosts and demons. In Chaldea these superstitions 
appeared in an exaggerated form. Indeed, the pictures in early 
Christian times, representing the devil with horns, hoofs, and 
tail, came from the Babylonians, through the Jewish Talmud.^ 



1 A Hebrew book containing much learning and many legends. 



70 THE TIGRIS-EUPHRATES STATES [§53 

Nature worsliip, in its lower stages, is often accompanied by 
debasing rites, in which drunkenness and sensuality appear as 
acts of worship. In Babylonia, revolting features of this kind 
remained throughout her history. It was this character that 
called down upon Babylon the stern reproaches of the Hebrew 
prophets, — through whom her name has become a symbol for 
dissoluteness. 

At the same time, as with the Egyptian higher classes, some 
hymns and prayers rise to a pure worship of one god ; and the 
Assyrian felt strongly that sense of sin which the Egyptian 
lacked and which has played so great a part in the Jewish and 
Christian religions. (See extract below.) 

The idea of a future life was of a primitive sort. Each 
tomb had an altar at the head for offerings of food. With a 
man were buried his arms; with a girl, her scent bottles, 
combs, ornaments, and cosmetics. Most Chaldeans, even of 
the intelligent classes, never rose to a higher idea of a future 
life than these customs indicate. It was to be, in their thought, 
a disagreeable, gloomy, half-alive state, in or near the tomb. 
At the same time, for a few thinkers there did arise another 
belief : some souls were to suffer in a hell of tortures ; others, 
who knew how to secure the divine favor, were to dwell amid 
varied pleasures in distant Isles of the Blest. 

The following passages show some of the higher religious 
thought. (See also Davis' Readings, Vol. I, Nos. 22 and 24.) 

From a Chaldean hymn, composed in the city of Ur, before 
the time of Abraham. 

*» Father, long suffering and full of forgiveness, whose hand upholds 

the life of all mankind ! . . . 
First-born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, and there is none 

who may fathom it ! . . . 
In heaven, who is supreme ? Thou alone, thou art supreme ! 
On earth, who is supreme ? Thou alone, thou art supreme I 
As for thee, thy will is made known in heaven, and the angels bow 

their faces. 
As for thee, thy will is made known upon earth, and the spirits belo'W 

kiss the ground." 



§53] RELIGION AND MORALS 71 

From an Assyrian prayer for remission of sins. 

" O my god, my sins are many ! . . . O my goddess, . . . great are 
my misdeeds ! I have committed faults and I knew them not. I have 
fed upon misdeeds and I knew them not. ... I weep and no one comes 
to me ; I cry aloud and no one hears me ; ... I sink under affliction. I 
turn to my merciful god and I groan. Lord, reject not thy servant, — and 
if he is hurled into the roaring waters, stretch to him thy hand I The sins 
I have committed, have mercy upon them I my faults, tear them to pieces 
like a garment !" 

A prayer of Nebuchadnezzar. 

" Thou hast created me. . . . Set thou the fear of thy divine power in 
my heart. Give me what seemest good unto thee, since thou maintainest 
my life." 



CHAPTER IV 

THE MIDDLE STATES 

The two Syrian peoples that demand notice in a book of this 
kind are the Phoenicians and the Hebrews. Each of these was 
an important factor in the development of civilization. 

I. THE PHOENICIANS 

54. Early Sailors. — Before 1000 b.c. the Phoenicians had be- 
come the traders of the loorld. Their vessels carried most of 
the commerce of Babylonia and Egypt. Phoenician sailors 
manned the ship that Neco sent to circumnavigate Africa. 
Indeed the fame of these people as sailors so eclipsed that of 
earlier peoples that it has been customary to speak of them as 
" the first men who went down to the sea in ships." 

The Phoenicians dwelt on a little strip of broken coast, shut 
off from the rest of the continent by the Lebanon Mountains 
(map, page 77). The many harbors of their coast invited them 
seaward, and the "cedar of Lebanon" furnished the best of 
masts and ship timber. When history first reveals the Med- 
iterranean, about 1600 B.C., it is dotted with the adventurous 
sails of the Phoenician navigators, and for centuries more they 
are the only real sailor folk. Half traders, half pirates, their 
crews crept from island to island, to barter with the natives 
or to sweep them off for slaves, as chance might best offer. 

Farther and farther their merchants daringly sought wealth 
on the sea, until they passed even the Pillars of Hercules,^ into 

1 The Greeks gave this name to two lofty, rocky hills, one on each side of 
the Strait of Gibraltar. They were generally believed by the ancients to be 
the limit of even the most daring voyage. Beyond them lay inconceivable 
dangers. (See map after page 132.) 

72 



§56] A SAILOR-FOLK 73 

the open Atlantic. And at last we see them exchanging the 
precious tin of Britain, the yellow amber of the Baltic, and the 
slaves and ivory of West Africa, for the spices, gold, scented 
wood, and precious stones of India. 

55. The chief Phoenician cities were Tyre and Sidon. For 
many centuries, until the attacks by Assyria in the eighth 
century B.C., these cities were among the most splendid and 
wealthy in the world. Ezekiel (xxvi, xxvii) describes the 
grandeur of Tyre in noble poetry that teaches us much regard- 
ing Phoenician trade and life : — 

"0 thou that dwellest at the entry of the sea, which art the merchant 
of the peoples unto many isles, . . . thou, O Tyre, hast said, I am per- 
fect in beauty. Thy borders are in the heart of the seas; thy builders 
have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy planks of fir trees. 
. . . They have taken cedars from Lebanon to be masts for thee ; they 
have made thy benches of ivory inlaid in boxwood from the isles of Kit- 
tim [Kition in Cyprus]. Of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt 
was thy sail, . . . blue and purple from the isles of Elishah [North 
Africa] was thy awning. . . . All the ships of the sea were in thee 
to exchange thy merchandise. . . . Tarshish [Tartessus, southwestern 
Spain] was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches. 
With silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded for thy wares. Javan [Greek 
Ionia], Tubal, and Mesheck [the lands of the Black and Caspian seas], 
they were thy traffickers. . . . They of the house of Togarmah [Arme- 
nia] traded for thy wares with horses and mules. . . . Many isles were 
the mart of thy hands. They brought thee bones of ivory and of ebony." 
Ezekiel names also, among the articles of exchange, emeralds, coral, 
rubies, wheat, honey, oil, balm, wine, wool, yarn, spices, lambs, and goats. 

56. Place in History. — The Phoenicians were the first colo- 
nizers on the sea, — the forerunners of the Greeks and the Eng- 
lish. They fringed the larger islands and the shores of the 
IMediterranean with trading stations, which became centers of 
civilization. Carthage, Utica, Gades (Cadiz, on the Atlantic), 
were among their colonies (map after page 132). They worked 
tin mines in Colchis, in Spain, and finally in Britain, and so 
made possible the manufacture of bronze on a larger scale than 
before, to replace stone implements. Probably they first intro- 
duced bronze into many parts of Europe. 



74 



THE PHOENICIANS 



[§57 



Phoenician articles are found in great abundance in the an- 
cient tombs of the Greek and Italian peninsulas — the earliest 
European homes of civilization. In a selfish but effective way, 
the Phoenicians became the "missionaries" 
to Europe of the culture that Asia and Africa 
had developed. It was their function, not to 
create civilization, hut to spread it. Especially 
did they teach the Greeks, vs^ho were to teach 
the rest of Europe. 

The chief export of the Phoenicians, some 
one has said, was the alphabet. They were 
only one of several early peoples (as we have 
recently discovered) to develop a true alpha- 
bet ; but it is theirs which has come down to 
us through the Greeks and Eomans. When 
the Egyptians conquered Syria about 1500 
B.C. (§ 30), the Phoenicians were using the 
cuneiform script of Babylon, with its hundreds 
of difficult characters. It 
was natural that, for the 
needs of their commerce, 
they should seek a simpler 
means of communication : 
and about 1100 B.C., after a 
gap of some centuries in our 
knowledge of their writing, 
we find them with a true alphabet of twenty- 
two letters. They seem to have taken these 
from the symbols for sounds among the Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphs (§ 22), though some scholars 
think they got them from Crete (§ 96). 

57. Society. — The Phoenicians in them- 
selves do not interest us particularly. They spoke a Semitic 
tongue •(§ 36) ; but their religion was revolting, especially for 
the cruel sacrifice of the firstborn to Baal, the sun god, and for 
the licentious worship of Astarte, the moon goddess. 



6 


-2£ 




"c 




c 


1 


-o 


e 

o 


Q. 


o 


(£ 


&< 


A 


A 


*? 


^ 


B 


> 


e 


<c 


A 


>D 


D 


^ 


>^ 


E 


laH 


EH 


H 


1^ 


K 


K 


I 


U 


I.L 


VA^ 


n 


M 


•A 


N 


N 


o 








9 


9 


9Q 


q 


P^ 


R 


W 


^3 


^S 


T 


T 


T 



Parts of 
Alphabet. 



u 

A 
A 
A 



Egryptian 
Hieroglyph. 



Egyptian 
Script. 

Phoenician. 



Ancient 
Greek. 



Ancient Latin. 



Later Latin, 



Growth of the 
Letter A. 



159] THE HEBREW STORY 75 

Several cities were grouped loosely about Sidon and Tyre-, 
but they never formed a united state. Satisfied with the profits 
of trade, they submitted easily, as a rule, to any powerful 
neighbor — Assyria or Egypt. As tributaries, they sent work- 
men to construct the magnificent buildings of Assyria or to 
develop the mines of Egypt, and they furnished the fleets of 
either empire in turn. 

About 730 B.C. Tyre was reduced in power, by attacks from 
Assyria ; but it remained a great mercantile center until its 
capture by Alexander the Great (332 e.g.). Erom this down- 
fall the city never fully recovered, and fishermen now spread 
their nets to dry in the sun on the bare rock where once its 
proud towers rose. 

II. THE HEBREWS 

Their Stoky 

58. The Patriarchs. — As the Phoenicians were men of the 
sea, so the early Hebrews were men of the desert. They ap- 
pear first as wandering shepherds on the edge of the Arabian 
sands. Abraham, the founder of the race, emigrated from " Ur 
of the Chaldees," about 2000 b.c. He and his descendants, 
Isaac and Jacob, lived and ruled as patriarchal chiefs, much 
as Arab sheiks do in the same regions to-day. The Book of 
Genesis tells their story with a simple charm that makes it the 
best-known historv in the world. 

59. The Egyptian Captivity. — Einally, " the famine was sore 
in the land." This famine seems to have caused one of those 
periodic invasions of Babylonia by tribes of the desert, already 
mentioned. Jacob and his sons, however, with their tribesmen 
and flocks, sought refuge in the other direction, crossing into 
Egypt. Here they found Joseph, one of their brethren, al- 
ready high in royal favor. The rulers of Egypt at this time, 
too, were the Hyksos, themselves originally Arabian shepherds. 
Accordingly, the Hebrews were welcomed cordially, and allowed 
to settle in the fertile pasturage of Goshen, an Egyptian dis< 



76 THE HEBREWS [§60 

trict near the Red Sea, where flitting Arab tribes have always 
been wont to encamp. Thus the life of the Hebrews was at 
first not much changed by their change of home. But soon the 
native Egyptian rule was restored by the Theban pharaohs, 
"who knew not Joseph." These powerful princes of the 
New Empire (§ 30) reduced the Hebrews to slavery and 
employed them on their great public works, and "made 
their lives bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and 
in all manner of service in the field." Three centuries later, 
while the Egyptian government was in a period of weakness 
and disorder (§ 31), the oppressed people escaped to the Ara- 
bian desert again. 

60. Settlement in Palestine. — In their flight from Egypt, the 
Hebrews were guided by Moses. Though a Hebrew, Moses had 
been brought up as a noble, through the favor of an Egyptian 
princess, and was " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." 
But " it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, 
that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their 
hurde^isy With splendid courage, he gave up his pleasant 
life to share their hard condition ; and he became their leader 
and lawgiver. 

For a lifetime, the fugitives wandered to and fro in the desert, 
after their ancient manner; but they were now a numerous 
people and had become accustomed to fixed abodes. About 
1250 B.C., under Joshua, to whom Moses had turned over the 
leadership, they began to conquer the mountain valleys of 
Palestine for their home. Then followed two centuries of 
bloody warfare with their neighbors, some of whom had long 
before taken on the civilization of Babylonia. The most 
powerful of their enemies were the Philistines, who held the 
coast between the Hebrew mountain valleys and the sea. It 
was from these people, indeed, that Palestine took its name. 

61. The Judges. — During this period the Hebrews remained 
a loose alliance of twelve shepherd tribes. The only central 
authority was exercised by a series of popular heroes, like 
Samson, Jephthah, Gideon, and Samuel^ known as Judges, 



63] 



OUTLINE OF THEIR STORY 



77 



Much of the time there was great and ruinous disorder, and 
bands of robbers drove travelers from the highways. I'inally, 
the Philistines for a time overran the land at will. 
62. Kings and 



THE SYRIAN 
DISTRICT 




Prophets. — Such 
conditions made 
the Hebrews feel 
the necessity of a 
stronger govern- 
ment. Saul, a 
mighty warrior, 
roused them against 
the Philistine spoil- 
ers of the land, and 
led them to victory. 
In return they made 
him their first king. 
Alongside this mon- 
arch and his succes- 
sors, however, there 
stood religious 
teachers with great 
authority. They 
were no longer lead- 
ers in war, like the 
Judges. Indeed 
these "prophets" 
had no official posi- 
tion; but they did 
not hesitate to re- 
buke or oppose a 
sovereign. 

63. David and Solomon, the second and third kings (1055-975), 
completely subdued the Philistines and various other neighbor- 
ing peoples, and raised the Hebrew state to the position of a 
considerable empire. Under Solomon, it included all western 



78 THE HEBREWS [§64 

Syria except Phoenicia and a small district next Egypt. The 
way for such a Syrian state had just been cleared. The Hit- 
tites (§ 31) had ruined the Egyptian power in Syria, and, in 
turn, had been shattered by Tiglath-Pileser ; and then the 
Assyrian dominion had been checked by new invasions from 
the Arabian desert. 

David will be remembered longest, not for his deeds as a 
daring warrior nor even as a wise organizer of an empire, but 
rather as "the sweet singer of Israel." He was originally 
a shepherd boy, who attracted Saul's favor by his beauty and 
his skill upon the harp ; and, in the most troublous days of his 
kingship, he sought rest and comfort in composing songs and 
poems, which are now included in the sacred Book of Psalms. 
So great was his repute in this respect, that the later Hebrews 
attributed to him many other hymns of v/hich the true authors 
were unknown. 

David had planned a noble temple at Jerusalem for the 
worship of Jehovah ; but the work was actually carried out by 
his son, Solomon. The Hebrews had little ability in archi- 
tecture ; but King Hiram of Tyre sent skilled Phoenician 
builders for the work, and it was completed with great 
magnificence. Through the rest of their history it remained 
the chief pride and center of interest for the Hebrew people. 

Until this period, Hebrew life had been plain and simple. 
They were still merely herdsmen and tillers of the soil. Not 
till after the Babylonian captivity, later, did they engage in 
commerce. But Solomon built rich palaces with his foreign 
workmen, and copied within them all the magnificence and 
luxury of an Oriental court. His reign closed the brief age of 
political greatness for the Hebreivs. 

64. Division and Decline. — The twelve tribes had not come 
to feel themselves really one nation. They had been divided 
into two groups in earlier times : ten tribes in one group ; 
two in the other.. David had belonged to the smaller group, 
and his early kingship had extended over only the two tribes. 
Jealousies against the rule of his house had smoldered al] 



§66] OUTLINE OF THEIR STORY 79 

along among the ten tribes. Now came a final separation. 
Solomon's taxes had sorely burdened the people. On his death, 
the ten tribes sent a petition to his son for relief. The young 
king (Rehoboam) replied with haughty insult : — 

" Whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to 
your yoke : my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise 
you with scorpions." 

Then arose at once a stern old war cry of the tribes : — 

"The people answered the king, saying, 'What portion have we in 
David ? . . . To your tents, O Israel ! ' " 

Thus the ten tribes set up for themselves as the Kingdom of 
Israel, with a capital at Samaria. Only the tribes of Benjamin 
and Judah remained faithful to the house of David. These 
took the name of the Kingdom of Judah, with the old capital, 
Jerusalem. 

65. The Captivities. — The Kingdom of Israel lasted 250 
years, until Sargon carried the ten tribes into that Assyrian 
captivity in which they are " lost " to history (§ 40). Judah 
lasted four centuries after the separation, most of the time 
tributary to Assyria or to Babylon. Finally, in punishment 
for rebellion, Nebuchadnezzar carried away the people into 
the Babylonian captivity (§ 42). 

66. Priestly Rule. — This event closed the separate politi- 
cal history of the Jews. The more zealous of them were al- 
lowed to return to Judea when the Persians conquered Babylon 
(§§ 42, 72). Thereafter in internal matters Judea was ruled by 
its priesthood. The most valuable part of its religous life was 
still to come ; but from that time, politically, it formed only a 
subject province of the Persian, Greek, or Roman Empire 
(except for a few glorious years under the Maccabees ; § 467). 
A series of stubborn rebellions against Rome finally brought a 
terrible punishment, in the year 70 a.d. After a notable siege, 
Jerusalem was sacked, and the remnant of inhabitants were 
sold into slavery. They remain dispersed among all lands to 
this day. 



80 



THE HEBREWS 



[§67 



Their Mission 

'•'• If the Greek was to enlighten the worlds if the Boman was to rule the 
world, if the Teuton was to be the common disciple and emissary of both, 
it was from the Hebrew that all were to learn the things that belong to 
another world.'' ^ — Freeman, Chief Periods, 66. 

67. The Faith in One God. — The Hebrews added nothing to 
material civilization : they did not profit the world by build- 




Jerusalem To-day, from the southwest, with the road to Bethlehem. 



ing roads, perfecting trades, or inventing new processes in in- 
dustry. Nor did they contribute directly to any art. Their 
work was higher. Their religious literature was the noblest 
the world had seen, and has passed into all the literatures of the 
civilized world ; but even this is valuable not so much for its 
literary merit as for its moral teachings. The true history of 
the Hebreivs is the record of their spiritual growth. Their religion 
was infinitely purer and truer than any other of the ancient 
world ; and out of it was to grow the religion of Christianity. 



§68] MISSION IN HISTORY 81 

Among other ancient nations, individuals had risen at times 
to noble religious thought; but the Hebrews first as a whole 
people felt strenuously the obligation of the moral law, and 
first attained to a pure worship of one God. 

68. Growth of the Faith. — At first this lofty faith belonged 
to only a few — to the patriarchs and later to the prophets, with 
a small following of the more spiritually minded of the nation. 
For a thousand years the common people, and even some of 
the kings, were constantly tending to fall away into the super- 
stitions of their Syrian neighbors. But it is the supreme merit 
of the Hebrews that a remnant always clung to the higher 
religion, until it became the universal faith of a whole people. 

No doubt the Babylonian captivity helped make this faith 
universal. The few devoted men and women who found their 
way back to Judea through so many hardships were indeed a 
" chosen " and sifted people. Among them there was no more 
tendency to idolatry. The faith of the patriarchs and proph- 
ets became the soul of a nation, — as a later and higher devel- 
opment of that faith was to become the soul of our whole 
civilization. 

This, then, was the mission of the Hebrews. As Renan well 
says (History of Israel, I, 22) : " What Greece was to be as re- 
gards iyitellectual culture, and Rome as regards politics^ these 
nomad Semites were as regards religionJ' The Jews, therefore, 
are sometimes counted a fourth influence, with Greeks, Ro- 
mans, and Teutons, in making our world (§ 4). But, after all, 
Judaism was an exclusive religion. It did not make converts 
among other people ; and did not directly affect the great world 
outside Judea. The rise and spread of Christianity belong, not 
solely to Jewish influence, but rather to the history of the later 
Roman world. 

Exercise. — 1. Locate on the map four centers of civilization for 
1500 B.C. ; and note when they would naturally come into touch with one 
another. (One more center for this same age — Crete — is yet to be 
itreated, §§ 93-97.) 2. What cew center of civilization appeared between 
1500 and 1000 b.c. ? 



CHAPTER V 

THE PERSIAN EMPIRE 

69. The Map grows. — So far, we have had to do only with 
the first homes of civilization — the Nile and Euphrates valleys 
— and with the middle land, Syria. Assyria did reach out 
somewhat, east and west (see map, page 55) ; but her new 
regions had no special importance in her day, and made no 
contributions to civilized life. But shortly before the over- 
throw of Babylon, two new centers of power appeared, one on 
either side of the older field. These were Persia and Lydia. 

70. Expansion on the West. — Lydia was a kingdom in west- 
ern Asia Minor. Somewhat before 550 B.C. its sovereign, 
Croesus, united all Asia Minor west of the Halys Eiver under 
his sway. This made the Lydian Empire for a time one of 
the great world-powers (see map following). The region was 
rich, especially in metals ; and the wealth of the monarch so 
impressed the Greeks that " rich as Croesus " became a by- 
word. Croesus counted among his subjects the Greek cities 
that fringed the western coast of Asia Minor. We have noticed 
that, shortly before, Greeks had been brought into close touch 
with Egypt. From this time, history has to do with Europe as 
well as with Asia and Egypt; and soon that new field was to 
become the center of interest. 

Lydia's own gift to the world was the invention of coinage* 
As early as 650 b.c, a Lydian king stamped upon pieces of 
silver a statement of their weight and purity, with his name 
and picture as guarantee of the truth of the statement. Until 
this time, little advance had been made over the old Egyptian 
method of trade, except that the use of silver rings and bars 
had become more common. The Babylonians, along with their 

82 



i 



§72] RISE AND GROWTH 83 

other weights and measures, had taught the world to count 
riches in shekels^ — a certain weight of silver, — but there were 
no coined shekels. The ring and bar "money" had to be 
weighed each time it passed from hand to hand ; and even then 
there was little security against cheaper metals being mixed 
with the silver.^ The true money of Lydia could be received 
anywhere at once at a fixed rate. This made all forms of 
trade and commerce vastly easier. Other states began to 
adopt systems of coinage of their own. Ever since, the coinage 
of money has been one of the important duties of governments. 

We must not suppose, however, that the old sort of " barter " vanished 
at once. It remained the common method of exchange in all but the 
great markets of the world for centuries ; and in new countries it has 
appeared, in the lack of coined money, in very modern times. In our 
early New England colonies there were times when people paid taxes and 
debts "in kind," much after the old Egyptian fashion. One student at 
Harvard college, who afterward became its president, is recorded as paying 
his tuition with " an old cow." 

71. Expansion in the East. — On the farther side of the 
Euphrates and Tigris lay the lofty and somewhat arid Plateau 
of Iran. This was the home of the Mecles and Persians. These 
peoples appeared first about 850 b.c, as fierce barbarians, 
whom Assyria found it needful to subdue repeatedly. Grad- 
ually they adopted the civilization of their neighbors; then, 
about 625 b.c, a chieftain of the Medes united the western 
tribes of the plateau into a firm monarchy ; and in 606, as we 
have seen, this new power conquered Assyria. 

We are now ready to take up again the story of the growth of the 
great Oriental empires, where we left it at the close of Chapter III. 
Chapter IV, dealing with the small Syrian states, was a necessary inter- 
ruption to that story. 

72. Rise of the Persian Empire. — The destruction of Assyrian 
rule, which we noted toward the close of § 41, took place some 

1 In all this ancient period, silver was more valuable than gold, and so was 
taken for the standard of value. 



84 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE [§72 

years before 600 e.g. Then the civilized world was divided, 
for three generations,^ between four great powers, — Babylon, 
Egypt, Lydia, and Media. Most of that time, these kingdoms 
were bound together in a friendly alliance ; and the civilized 
world had a rare rest from internal war. Media, it is true, 
busied herself in extending her dominions by war with barbar- 
ous tribes on the east. By such means she added to her terri- 
tory all the Plateau of Iran and the northern portion of the old 
Assyrian Empire. This made her far the largest of the four 
states. But in 558 e.g., Cyrvs, a tributary prince of the Persian 
tribes, threw off the yoke of the Medes and set up an inde- 
pendent Persian monarchy .^ 

Then Persia quickly became the largest and most powerful 
empire the world had known. The war with Media resulted 
in the rapid conquest of that state. This victory led Cyrus 
into war with Lydia and Babylon, which were allies of Media. 
Again he was overwhelmingly victorious. He conquered 
Croesus of Lydia and seized upon all Asia Minor. Then he 
captured Babylon, and so was left without a rival in the 
Euphrates and Syrian districts. A few years later his son 
subdued Egypt. Thus the new empire included all the former 
empires, together with the new districts of Iran and Asia Minor. 

With the Greeks Persia came into conflict, about thirty years after 
the death of Cyrus. The story belongs to European history (§§ 158 ff ). 
It is enough here to note that the Persians were finally defeated. Their 
empire lasted, however, a century and a half more, until Alexander the 
Great conquered it and united it with the Greek world (§§ 276 ff.). 

1 It is time for the student to have a definite understanding of this term, 
which is used constantly in measuring time. A generation means the aver- 
age interval that separates a father from his son. This corresponds in length, 
also, in a rough way, to the active years of adult life, — the period between 
early manhood and old age. It is reckoned at twenty-five or thirty years. 

2 This prince is known in history as Cyrus the Great. He is the earliest 
sovereign whose name we distinguish in that way. A student may well make 
a special report to the class upon the stories connected with his life. Any 
large history of ancient times gives some of these stories ; and they may be 
found, in the original form in which they have come down to us, in a transla- 
tion of Herodotus. See also Davis' Readings, Vol. I. Nos. 25 and 26. 



I 



§74] 



RISE AND GROWTH 



85 



73. Extent of the Empire. — The field of history now widened 
agaiii. The next three Persian kings (after Cyrus and his 
son) added vast districts to the empire : on the east, modern 
Afghanistan and northwestern India, with wide regions to the 
northeast beyond the Caspian Sea ; and on the west, the Euro- 
pean coast from the Black Sea to the Greek peninsula and 
the islands of the ^gean. 

This huge empire contained about seventy-five million people. 
Its only civilized neighbors were India and Greece. Else- 




Impression from Persian Cylinder Seal. 

where, indeed, it was bounded by seas and deserts. The 
eastern and western frontiers were farther apart than Wash- 
ington and San Francisco. The territory included some two 
million square miles. It was four times as large as the Assyr- 
ian Empire, and equaled more than half modern Europe. 

74. Industry and Art. — Originally, the Persians were lowly 
shepherds. Later, they were soldiers and rulers. After their 
sudden conquests, the small population had to furnish garri- 
sons for all the chief cities of the empire, while the nobles 
were busied as officers in the vast organization of the govern- 
ment. Accordingly, Persian art and literature were wholly 
borrowed, — mainly from Babylonia. The cuneiform writing 



86 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE [§75 

was adopted from that land; and even the noble palaces, 
which have been rediscovered at Persepolis, were only copies 
of Assyrian palaces, built in stone instead of in clay. Persia's 
services to the world were four : the immense expoMsion of the 
map already discussed; the repulse of Scythian savages (§ 75) ; a 
better organization of government (§§ 76, 77); and the lofty char- 
acter of her reliaion (§ 78).^ 

75. Persia and the Scythians. — About 630 B.C., shortly be- 
fore the downfall of Nineveh, the frozen steppes of the North 
had poured hordes of savages into western Asia (§ 40). By 
the Greeks these nomads were called Scythians, and their in- 
roads were like those of the Huns, Turks, and Tartars, in later 
history. They plundered as far as Egypt; and they were a 
real danger to all the culture the world had been building up 
so painfully for four thousand years. Assyria and Lydia both 
proved helpless to hold them back ; but the Medes and Persians 
saved civilization. The Medes drove the ruthless ravagers 
back to their own deserts ; and the early Persian kings made 
repeated expeditions into the Scythian country. By these 
means the barbarians were awed, and for centuries the danger 
of their attacks was averted. 

Darius, the greatest of the successors of Cyrus, seems to 
have justified his conquests on the ground of this service to 
civilization. In a famous inscription enumerating his con- 
quests, he says : " Ahura-Mazda [the God of Light] delivered 
unto me these countries when he saw them in uproar. . . . 
By the grace of Ahura-Mazda I have brought them to order 
again." 

The lengthy inscription from which this passage is taken is cut into 
a rock cliff, 300 feet from the base, in three parallel columns, in different 
languages, — Persian, Babylonian, and Tartar. It served as the " Rosetta 
Stone" of the cuneiform writing (§ 5). Enough of the Persian was 
known so that from it scholars learned how to read the Babylonian. 
Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 27, gives a large part of this inscription, 

1 Observe that three of the four were connected with political history, — as 
we might expect with a people like the Persians. 



I 



76] 



ORGANIZATION 



87 



which is one of the most important documents of early history, throw- 
ing much light upon Persian life and ideals. 

76. The Imperial Government. — The empires which came 
before the Assyrian had very simple machinery for their 
government. The tribu- 
tary states kept their old 
kings and their separate 
languages, religions, laws, 
and customs. Two sub- 
ject kingdoms might even 
make war upon each other, 
without interference from 
the head king. Indeed, 
the different kingdoms 
within an empire re- 
mained almost as separate 
as before they became 
parts of the conquering 
state, except in three re- 
spects : they had to pay 
tribute ; they had to assist 
in war; and their kings 
were expected, from time 
to time, to attend the court 
of the imperial master.^ 

Plainly, such an empire 
would fall to pieces easily. 
If any disaster happened 
to the ruling state, — if a 
foreign invasion or the unexpected death of a sovereign oc- 
curred, — the whole fabric might be shattered at a moment. 
Each of the original kingdoms would become independent 




Persian Queen : fragment of a bronze 
statue. The dress seems very " modern." 



iThe brief empire of the Jews, for instance, had been of this nature. 
Solomon, the Book of Kings tells us, " reigned over all the kingdoms . . . 
U2to ti>e border of Egypt ; they brought presents and served Solomon." 



88 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE [§76 

again ; and then would follow years of bloody war, until some 
king built up the empire once more. Peace and security could 
not exist under such a system. 

Assyria, it is true, had begun to reform this system. The 
great Assyrian rulers of the eighth century were not simply 
conquerors. They were also organizers. They left the subject 
peoples their own laws and customs, as before ; but they broke 
up some of the old kingdoms into satrapies, or provinces, ruled 
by appointed officers (§ 40). 

The system, however, was still unsatisfactory. In theory 
the satraps were wholly dependent upon the will of the im- 
perial king; but in practice they were very nearly kings 
themselves, and they were under constant temptation to try 
to become independent rulers, by rebellion. 

This was the plan of imperial government as the Persians 
found it. They adopted and extended the system of satraps ; 
and Darius, the fourth Persian king (521-485 b.c), introduced 
three checks upon rebellion. In each of the twenty provinces, 
power was divided between the satrap himself and the com- 
mander of the standing army. In each province was placed 
a royal secretary (the "King's Ear") to communicate con- 
stantly with the Great King. And, most important of all, 
a special royal commissioner (the " King's Eye "), backed with 
military forces, appeared at intervals in each satrapy to in- 
quire into the government, and, if necessary, to arrest the 
satrap. 

Darius is well called ^Hhe Organizer J' Political organiza^ 
tion advanced no farther until Roman times. Not much had 
been done to promote a spirit of unity among the diverse 
peoples of the empire. Each still kept its separate language 
and customs. Still, for the age, the organization of Darius 
was a marvelous work. It was the most satisfactory ever 
devised by Orientals; and indeed it was nearer to the later 
Roman imperial government than to the older and looser 
Asiatic system of kingdom-empires. The modern Turkish 
empire, in its best davs- has used this system. 



§77] 



ORGANIZATION 



89 



77. Post Roads. — The Persians, too, were more thoughtful 
of the welfare of their subjects than the Assyrians had been. 
To draw the distant parts of the empire closer, Darius built 
a magnificent system of post roads, with milestones and ex- 
cellent inns, with ferries and bridges, and with relays of 
horses for the royal couriers. The chief road, from Susa to 
Sardis (map, after page 84), was over fifteen hundred miles. 




Persian Bronze Lion, at Susa. 

long; and it is said that dispatches were sometimes carried 
its whole length in six days, although ordinary travel required 
three months. Benjamin Ide Wheeler writes of this great 
highway (Alexander the Great, 196-197) : — 

" All the diverse life of the countries it traversed was drawn into 
its paths. Carians and Cilicians, Phrygians and Cappadocians, staid 
Lydians, sociable Greeks, crafty Armenians, rude traders from the 
Euxine sho es, nabobs of Babylon, Medes and Persians, galloping 
couriers mounted on their Bokhara ponies or fine Arab steeds, envoys 
with train and state, peasants driving their donkeys laden with skins of 
oil or wine or sacks of grain, stately caravans bearing the wares and 
fabrics of the south to exchange for the metals, slaves, and grain of the 
north, travelers and traders seeking to know and exploit the world, — all 



90 THE PERSIAN EMPIRE [§78 

were there, and all were safe under the protection of an empire the road- 
way of which pierced the strata of many tribes and many cultures, and 
helped set the world a-mixing.''^ 

78. Religion and Morals. — While they were still barbarous 
tribes, the early Persians had learned to worship the forces of 
nature, — especially sun, moon, stars, and fire. This worship 
was in the hands of priests, called Magi, who were believed to 
possess what we call magic powers over nature and other men. 

Even this early religion had few of the lower features that 
we have noted in the worship of the Egyptians and Babylo- 
nians. But the Persians of the historic age had risen to a far 
nobler worship. This is set forth in the Zend-Avesta (the 
Persian Bible), and it had been established about 1000 b.c.^ 
by Zoroaster. According to this great teacher, the world was 
a stage for unceasing conflict between the powers of Light and 
Darkness, or Good and Evil. It was man's duty to assist the 
good power by resisting evil impulses in his own heart and by 
fighting injustice among men. It was also his place to kill 
harmful beasts, to care tenderly for other animals, and to make 
the earth fruitful. 

The superstitions of Magism continued to crop out among the 
masses of the people ; and the earlier nature worship survived, 
too, in the belief in a multitude of angels, good and bad ; but 
idolatry was not permitted, and this Zoroastrian faith was by 
far the purest of the ancient world, except that of the Hebrews. 
When the Persians became supreme, they showed marked favor 
to the Hebrews. Cyrus permitted them to return from the 
Babylonian captivity (§ 66), and even helped them to rebuild 
the Temple. These friendly relations were due in part, no 
doubt, to similarity in religious thought. 

The following passage from the Zend-Avesta shows the 
Persian idea of the future life. 

At the head of the Chinvat Bridge, betwixt this world and the next, 
V^hen the soul goes over it, there comes a fair, white-armed and beautiful 

1 This date is uncertain. Some scholars put Zoroaster as late as 600 B.C. 



§78] RELIGION AND MORALS 91 

figure, like a maid in her fifteenth year, as fair as the fairest things in the 
world. And the soul of the true believer speaks to her, " What maid 
art thou, — all surpassing in thy beauty ? ' ' And she makes answer, ' ' O 
youth of good thought, good words, good deeds, and of good religion : — 
I am thine own conscience.'''* 

Then pass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat of Ahura-Mazda, 
of the Archangels, to . . . "The Abode of Song." 

Another passage tells how the souls of the wicked are met by 
a foul hag and are plunged into a hideous pit, to suffer endless 
torment.^ 

The cardinal virtue was truthfulness. Darius' instructions 
to his successor began t "Keep thyself utterly from lies. 
The man who may be a liar, him destroy utterly. If thou do 
thus, my country will remain whole." A century later, the 
Greek Herodotus admired the manly sports of the Persians 
and the simple training of their boys, — to ride, to shoot with 
the bow, and to speak the truth." 

Conquest and dominion corrupted in some measure their 
early simplicity ; but to the last, the Persians fought gallantly, 
and the Greeks conquered in battle because of improved weap- 
ons and better generalship, not from superior bravery. 



For Further Reading. — There is an admirable twenty-page treatment 
of the Persian Empire in Benjamin Ide Wheeler's Alexander the Great 
(pp. 187-207), — a book which for other reasons deserves a place in every 
school library. 

Exercise. — Would you have expected the Persians to adopt thft 
Egyptian hieroglyphs or the cuneiform writing ? Why ? In what waya 
was the organization of the Persian empire an improvement upon that of 
the Assyrian ? In what way did Assyrian organization improve upon 
Egyptian ? 

1 Davis' Readings, Vol. I, Nos. 27 (later portion), 28, 29, 30, 31, contain 
much interesting material upon Persian religion and morals. 



CHAPTER VI 



A SUMMARY OF ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION 

A compact summary, like the following, is best suited for 
reading in class, with comment or questions. 

79. The Bright Side. — Seven thousand years ago, in the 
valleys of the Nile and Euphrates, men developed a remarkable 

civilization. They in- 
vented excellent tools 
of bronze (and later 
of iron), and practised 
many arts and crafts 
with a skill of hand 
that has never been 
surpassed. They 
built great cities, with 
pleasant homes for 
the wealthy, and with 
splendid palaces for 
their princes. They 
learned how to record 
their thoughts and 
doings and inventions 
in writing, for one an- 
other and for their descendants. They built roads and canals ; 
and with ships and caravans, they sought out the treasures of 
distant regions, while the wealth, so heaped up, was spent by 
their rulers with gorgeous pomp and splendor. They found 
out part of the value of government (to hold together a large 
society of men), and the need of human law, to regulate their 
relations with one another. Their thinkers, too, found in their 
own consciences some of the highest moral truths, and taught 
the duty of truthfulness, justice, and mercy. 

99 




Persian Jkwelry. 



5 81] BRIGHT AND DARK SIDES 93 

War and trade carried this culture slowly around the eastern 
coasts of the Mediterranean; and before 1000 b.c. Phoenician 
traders had scattered its seeds more widely in many regions. 
Five hundred years later, Persia saved the slow gains of the 
ages from barbarian ravagers, and united and organized all the 
civilized East under an effective system of government. 

80. The Dark Side. — This Oriental culture, however, was 
marred by serious faults. 

Its benefits were for a few only. 

Government was despotic. The people worshiped the mon- 
arch with slavish submission. 

Art was unnatural. Sculpture mingled the monstrous and 
grotesque with the human ; and architecture sought to rouse 
admiration by colossal size, rather than by beauty and true 
proportion. Most literature was pompous and stilted, or de- 
faced by extravagant fancies, — like the story of a king who 
lived many thousand years before his first gray hair appeared. 

Learning was allied to absurd and evil superstition. Men's 
minds were enslaved by tradition and custom; and progress 
was hampered by fear of the mysterious in nature. 

Most religions (along with better features) fostered lust and 
cruelty. Toward the close of the period, it is true, there had 
grown up among the Hebrews a pure worship, whose truth 
and grandeur were to influence profoundly the later world. 
But, for centuries more, this religion was the possession of 
only one small people. Nor did the lofty religious ideas of 
the Persians much affect any other people of the ancient world. 
These were not missionary religions. 

There was little variety in the different civilizations of the 
Orient. They differed in certain minor ways, but not as the 
later European nations did. Thus they lacked a wholesome 
rivalry to stimulate them to continued progress. Each civiliza- 
tion reached its best stage early, and then hardened into set 
customs. 

81. The Question of Further Progress. — Whether the Orien- 
tal world would have made further progress, if left to itself, we 



94 ORIENTAL CIVILIZATIONS [§81 

cannot know surely. It seems not likely. China and India, 
we know, made similar beginnings, but became stationary, 
and have remained so for centuries since. In like fashion, 
the Oriental civilizations which we have been studying appear 
to have been growing stagnant. Twice as long a period had 
already elapsed since their beginning, as has sufficed for all our 
Western growth. Very probably, they would have crystallized, 
with all their faults, had not new actors appeared. To these 
new actors and their new stage we now turn. 



Suggestions for Review 



Let the class prepare review questions, each member five or ten, to ask 
of the others. Criticize the questions, showing which ones help to bring out 
important facts and contrasts and likenesses, and which are merely trivial 
or curious. The author of this volume does not think it worth while to 
hold students responsible for dates in Part I, unless, perhaps, for a few 
of the later ones. The table in § 158 below may be used for cross refer- 
ence and reviews. It is well to make lists of important names or terms 
for rapid drill, demanding brief but clear explanation of each term, i.e., 
cuneiform^ shekel, Hyksos, papyrus. Read over the "theme sentences," 
in quotation, at the top of Chapters or Divisions (on pages 1, 11, 15, 80), 
and see whether the class feel, in part at least, their applications. 

Sample Questions: (1) Why is Chaldea (whose civilization has been 
overthrown) better worth our study than China (where an ancient civili- 
zation still exists)? (2) In what did the Egyptians excel the Babylo- 
nians ? (3) In what did the Babylonians excel the Egyptians ? (4) In 
what did the Persians excel both ? (5) Trace the growth of the map for 
civilized countries. (6) Name four contributions to civilization, not 
mentioned in § 79, but important enough to deserve a place there if space 
permitted. 

Caution: Make sure that the terms "empire," "state," "tributary 
state," "civilization," have a definite meaning for the student. (See 
preceding text or footnotes.) 

It does not seem to the author advisable to recommend young high 
school students to read widely upon the Oriental peoples in connection 
with the first year in history. The material in Davis' Readings is ad- 
mirable for all classes. And a few select titles for the school library are 
given in the appendix, from which the teacher may make assignments if 
it seems best. 



i~-^fmivvj,''fj 




PART II 

THE GREEKS 

Greece — that point of light in history ! — Hegel. 

We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our art^ 
have their roots in Greece. — Shelley. 

Except the blind forces of nature, there is nothing that MOVES in the 
world to-day that is not Greek in origin. — Henry Sumner Maine. 

STUDY OF THE MAPS AFTER PAGES 94 AND 98 

Note the three great divisions : Northern Greece (Epirus and Thes- 
saly); Central Greece (a group of eleven districts, to the isthmus of 
Corinth) ; and the Peloponnesus (the southern peninsula). Name the 
districts from Phocis south, and the chief cities in each, as shown on the 
map. Which districts have no coast ? Locate Delphi, Thermopylae, 
Tempe, Parnassus, Olympus, Olympia, Salamis, Ithaca, eight islands, 
three cities on the Asiatic side. Draw the map with the amount of detail 
just indicated. Examine the map frequently in preparing the next lesson. 
(7%e index tells on what map each geographical name used in the book can 
be found, — except in a few cases, like Pacific Ocean.) 



CHAPTER VII 
INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY 

82. Europe contrasted with Asia. — Asia and Egypt had de- 
veloped the earliest civilizations. But, for at least half of 
their four thousand years, another culture had been rising 
slowly along the coasts and islands of southern Europe. This 
European civilization began independently of the older ones. It 
drew from them in many ways (as we shall see more clearly a 
little farther on) ; but it always kept a distinct character of 

95 



96 THE GREEKS [§83 

its own. The difference was due, in part at least, to differences 
in physical geography. Four features of European geography 
were specially important : — 

Europe is a peninsula. TJie sea is easy of access} 

Europe has a more temperate climate than the semitropical 
river valleys of Asia ; and food crops demand more cultivation. 
These conditions called for greater exertion upon the part of 
man. Moreover, the natural products of Europe were more 
varied than those of Asia. This led to greater variety in human 
occupations. The beginnings of civilization were slower in 
Europe; but man was finally to count for more there than in 
Asia. 

In contrast with the vast Asiatic plains and valleys, Europe 
is broken into many small districts, fit to become the homes of 
distinct peoples. Thus many separate civilizations grew up in 
touch with one another. Their natural boundaries kept one 
from absorbing the others. So they remained mutually help- 
ful by their rivalry and intercourse. 

Europe could not easily he conquered by the Asiatic empires. 
This consideration was highly important. Some districts of 
Asia, such as western Syria and parts of Asia Minor, had a 
physical character like that of Europe. Accordingly, in these 
places, civilizations had begun, with a character like that of 
later European peoples. But these states were reached easily 
by the forces of the earlier and mightier river-empires ; and in 
the end the "Asiatic character" was always imposed upon 
them, Europe was saved, partly by its remoteness, but more 
by the Mediterranean. 

83. The Mediterranean has been a mighty factor in European 
history. Indeed, through all ancient history, European civili- 
zation was merely "Mediterranean civilization." It never 
ventured far from the coasts of that sea. The Mediterranean 
was the great highway for friendly intercourse, and the great 

1 Through all "ancient history" (§ 4), "Europe" means southern and 
central Europe. Russian Europe, indeed, is really part of Asia in geography, 
and it has always been Asiatic rather than European in culture. 



§85] INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY 97 

harrier against Asiatic conquest. Thus, Persia subdued the 
Asia.tic Greeks, almost without a blow : the European Greeks 
she failed to conquer even by supreme effort. 

To understand this value of the sea as a barrier, we must keep in 
mind the character of ships in early times. The sea was the easiest 
road for merchants, traveling in single vessels and certain of friendly 
welcome at almost any port. But oars were the main force that drove 
the ship (sails were used only when the wind was very favorable) ; and 
the small vessels of that day could not carry many more people than 
were needed to man the benches of oarsmen. To transport a large 
army, in this way, with needful supplies, — in condition, too, to meet 
a hostile army at the landing place, — was almost impossible. 

84. Greece was typical of Europe in geography and civilization. 
The Greeks called themselves Hellenes (as they do still). 
Hellas meant not European Greece alone, but all the lands of 
the Hellenes. It included the Greek peninsula, the shores and 
islands of the Aegean, Greek colonies on the Black Sea, to the 
east, and in Sicily and southern Italy, to the west, with scat- 
tered patches elsewhere along the Mediterranean. 

Still, the central peninsula remained the heart of Hellas. 
Epirus and Thessaly had little to do witn Greek history. 
Omitting them, the area of Greece is less than a fourth of that 
of New York. In this little district are found all the charac- 
teristic traits of European geography. It has been well called 
the " most European of European lands,-' and it became the first 
home of European culture. 

85. Greek Geography and its Influence. — Certain factors in 
Greek geography deserve special mention even though we re- 
peat part of what has been said of Europe as a whole. 

a. The islands and the patches of Greek settlements on 
distant coasts made many distinct geographical divisions. Even 
the little Greek peninsula counted more than twenty such units, 
each shut off from the others by its strip of sea and its moun- 
tain walls. Some of these divisions were about as large as an 
American township, and the large ones (except Thessaly and 
Epirus) were only seven or eight times that size. 



98 THE GREEKS [§85 

The little states which grew up in these divisions differed widely 
from one another. Some were monarchies ; some, oligarchies ; some, 
democracies.! In some, the chief industry was trade ; in some, it was 
agriculture. In some, the people were slow and conservative ; in others, 
they were enterprising and progressive. Oriental civilizations, we have 
seen (§ 80), were marked by too great uniformity; the civilizations of 
European countries have been marked by a wholesome diversity. This 
character was foimd especially among the Greeks. 

&. Mountain people, living apart, are usually rude and con- 
servative ; but from such tendencies Greece was saved by the sea. 
The sea made friendly intercourse possible on a large scale, 
and brought Athens as closely into touch with Miletus (in 
Asia) as with Sparta or Olympia. This value of the sea, too, 
held good for different parts of ^'European Greece" itself. 
The peninsula has less area than Portugal, but a longer coast 
line than all the Spanish peninsula. The very heart of the 
land is broken into islands and promontories, so that it is hard 
to find a spot thirty miles distant from the sea. 

c. Certain products of some districts made commerce very desir- 
able. The mountain slopes in some parts, as in Attica, grew 
grapes and olives better than grain. Wine and olive oil had 
much value in little space. Thus they were especially suited for 
commerce. Moreover, such mountain districts had a limited 
grain supply ; and, if population was to increase, the people 
were driven to trade. Now, sailors and traders come in 
touch constantly with new manners and new ideas, and they 
are more likely to make progress than a purely agricultural 
people. Exchanging commodities, they are ready to exchange 
ideas also. The seafaring Greeks were " always seeking some 
new thing.'' 

1 A monarchy, in the first meaning of the word, is a state ruled by one 
man, a " monarch." An oligarchy is a state ruled by a " few," or by a small 
class. A democracy is a state where the whole people govern. In ancient 
history the words are used with these meanings. Sometimes " aristocracy " 
is used with much the same force as oligarchy. (In modern times the 
word " monarchy " is used sometimes of a government like England, which 
is monarchic only in form, but which really is a democracy.) 




THE GREEK PENINSULA 



SCALE OF MILES 



10 20 



40 50 60 70 



22° LoDfe-ilude 



§85] INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY 99 

d. These early seekers found valuable new things within 
easy reach. Fortunately, this most European of all European 
lands lay nearest of all Europe to the old civilizations of Asia 
and Egypt. Moreover, it faced this civilized East rather than 
the barbarous West. On the other side, toward Italy, the 
coast of Greece is cliff or marsh, with only three or four good 
harbors. On the east, however, the whole line is broken by 




Scene in the Vale of Tempe. — From a photograph. Cf. § 173. 

deep bays, from whose mouths, chains of inviting islands 
lead on and on. In clear weather, the mariner may cross the 
Aegean without losing sight of land. 

e. Very important, too, was the appearance of the landscape. 
A great Oriental state spread over vast plains and was bounded 
by terrible immensities of desolate deserts. But, except in 
Thessaly, Greece contained no plains of consequence. It was 
a land of intermingled sea and mountain, ^uith everything upon a 
moderate scale. There were no mountains so astounding as to 



100 THE GREEKS [§86 

awe the mind. There were no destructive earthquakes, or tre- 
mendous storms, or overwhelming floods. Oriental man had 
bowed in superstitious dread before the mysteries of nature, 
with little attempt to explain them. But in Greece, nature 
was not terrible; and men began early to search into her 
secrets. Oriental submission to tradition and custom was re- 
placed by fearless inquiry and originality. In like manner. 
Oriental despotism gave way to Greek freedom. No doubt, too, 
the moderation and variety of the physical world had a part in 
producing the many-sided genius of the people and their lively 
but well-controlled imagination. And the varied beauty of 
hill and dale and blue, sunlit sea, the wonderfully clear, ex- 
hilarating air, and the soft splendor of the radiant sky helped 
to give them intense joy in mere living. 

86. Summary. — We have noted five features of Greek geog- 
raphy: the many separate districts; the sea roads; the in- 
ducements to trade ; the vicinity of the open side to Eastern 
civilization ; and the moderation, diversity, and beauty of nature. 
Each of these five features became a force in history. The 
Greeks produced many varieties of society, side by side, to re- 
act upon one another. They learned quickly whatever the 
older civilizations could teach them. They inquired fearlessly 
into all secrets, natural and supernatural, instead of abasing 
themselves in Oriental awe. They had no controlling priest- 
hood, as the Egyptians had ; and they never submitted long to 
arbitrary government, as the great Asiatic peoples did. Above 
all other peoples, they developed a love for harmony and pro- 
portion. Moderation became their ideal virtue, and they used 
the same word for good and beautiful. 



Exercise. — Review the topic — Influence of Geography upon History 
— up to this point. See Index, Physical Geography. 



CHAPTER VIII 
HOW WE KNOW ABOUT "PREHISTORIC" HELLAS 

87. The Homeric Poems. — The Greeks were late in learning 
to use writing, and so our knowledge of early Greek civilization 
is imperfect. Until recently, what knowledge we had came 
mainly from two famous collections of early poems, the Iliad 
and the Odyssey. The later Greeks believed that these were 
composed about 1100 b.c. by a blind minstrel ^ named Homer. 
We still call them ^'the Homeric poems," though scholars now 
believe that each collection was made up of ballads by many bards. 
The poems were not put into manuscript until about 600 b.c. ; 
but they had been handed down orally from generation to gen- 
eration for centuries. The Iliad describes part of the ten-year 
siege of Troy (Ilium) in Asia. A Trojan prince had carried 
away the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; 
and, under the leadership of the great king Agamemnon, 
brother of Menelaus, the chiefs had rallied from all parts of 
Greece to recover her. Finally they captured and burned the 
city. The Odyssey narrates the wanderings of Odysseus 
(Ulysses), one of the Greek heroes, in the return from the war. 

The Trojan war may be fact or fiction.^ In either case, the 
pictures of society in the poems must be true to life. In rude 
ages a bard may invent stories, but not manners and customs.' 

1 In early times, the poet did not write his poems. He chanted them, to the 
accompaniment of a harp or some such instrument, at festivals or at the meals 
of chieftains. Such a poet is called a minstrel, or bard, or harper. 

2 A well-known Homeric scholar has just published an ingenious book to 
prove that there was a real Trojan war, and that it was fought by the Greeks 
to secure control of the Hellespont — and so of the Black Sea trade. Teachers 
will find this latest contribution to the Homeric problem intensely interesting: 
Walter Leaf, Troy : A Study in Homeric Geography, Macmillan. 

3 To-day a novelist inclines naturally to make the people in his story tallj 
and act like the people in real life around him. To be sure, now, he may try, 

101 



102 PREHISTORIC HELLAS [§88 

Thus these Homeric poems teach us much about what the 
Greeks of 1000 or 1100 b.c. thought, and how they lived. 

88. Remains in the Soil. — Quite recently another source of 
information has been opened to us. Students of Greek history 
strangely neglected the remains buried in the soil, long after the 
study of such objects in the Orient had disclosed many wonders; 
but in 1870 a.d. Dr. Schliemann, a German scholar, turned to 
this kind of investigation. He hoped to prove the Homeric 
stories true. His excavations, and those of others since, have 
done a more important thing. They have added much to our 
knowledge of Homer's time, hut they have also opened up two 
thousand years of older culture, of which Homer and the later 
Greeks never dreamed. 

89. Henry Schliemann's own life was as romantic as any story in 
Homer. His father was the pastor in a small German village. The boy 
grew up with perfect faith in fairies and goblins and tales of magic treas- 
ure connected with the old history of the place. His father told him the 
Homeric stories, and once showed him a fanciful picture of the huge 
" Walls of Troy." The child was deeply interested. When he was told 
that no one now knew just where Troy had stood, and that the city had left 
no traces, he insisted that such walls must have left remains that could be 
uncovered by digging in the ground ; and his father playfully agreed that 
sometime Henry should find them. Later, the boy learned that the great 
scholars of his day did not believe that such a city as Troy had ever 
existed. This aroused in him a fierce resentment ; and to carry out his 
childhood dream of finding the great walls of Homer's city became the 
passion of his life. To do this he must have riches. He was very poor. 
Six years he worked as a grocer's boy ; then, for many years more as 
clerk for various larger firms. All this time he studied zealously, learning 
many languages. This made it possible for his employers to send him to 
foreign countries, in connection with their business. In this way he 
found opportunities to amass wealth for himself, and, at the age of forty- 
eight, he was ready to begin his real work. 

purposely, to represent a past age (historical novel), or he may try foolishly to 
represent some class of people about whom he knows little. But in an early 
age, like that of the Homeric minstrels, a poet cannot know any society except 
the simple one about him, and he knows all phases of that. If he tells a story 
at all, even of a former age, he makes his actors like men of his own time. 



§91] TROY AND MYCENAE 103 

Three incidents in the explorations are treated in the following 
paragraphs. 

90. Excavations at Troy. — Dr. Schliemann began his excava- 
tion at a little village in "Troy-land," three miles from the 
shore, where vague tradition placed the scene of the Iliad. 
The explorations continued more than twenty years and dis- 
closed the remains of nine distinct towns, one above another. 

The oldest, on native rock, some fifty feet below the present 
surface, was a rude village of the Stone Age. The second was 
thought by Dr. Schliemann to be Homer's Troy. It showed 
powerful walls, a citadel that had been destroyed by fire, and 
a civilization marked by bronze weapons and gold ornaments. 
We know now that this city passed away more than a thou- 
sand years before Homer's time, so that no doubt the very 
memory of its civilization had perished before the real Troy 
was built. Above it, came the remains of three inferior settle^ 
ments, and then — the sixth layer from the bottom — a much 
larger and finer city, which had perished in conflagration some 
twelve hundred years before Christ. Extensive explorations 
in the year 1893 (after Schliemann's death) proved this sixth 
city to be the Troy of Homer, with remarkable likeness to the 
description in the Iliad. 

Above this Homeric Troy came an old Greek city, a magnificent city of 
the time of Alexander the Great, a Roman city, and, finally, the squalid 
Turkish village of to-day. 

91. Excavations at Mycenae. — Homer places the capital of 
Agamemnon, leader of all the Greeks, in Argolis at " Mycenae, 
rich in gold." Here, in 1876, Schliemann uncovered the 
remains of an ancient city, with peculiar, massive (" Cyclo- 
pean") walls. Within, were found a curious group of tombs, 
where lay in state the embalmed bodies of ancient kings, — 

*' in the splendor of their crowns and breastplates of embossed plate of 
gold ; their swords studded with golden imagery ; their faces covered 
strangely in golden masks. The very floor of one tomb was thick with 
gold dust — the heavy gilding from some perished kingly vestment. In 
another was a downfall of golden leaves and flowers. And amid this pro- 



104 PREHISTORIC HELLAS [§92 

fusion of fine fragments were rings, bracelets, smaller crowns, as fof 
children, dainty butterflies for ornaments, and [a wonderful] golden flowei 
on a silver stalk." 

One tomb, with three female bodies, contained 870 gold 
objects, besides multitudes of very small ornaments and count- 
less gold beads. In another, five bodies were " literally smoth- 
ered in jewels." And, with these ornaments, there were skill- 
fully and curiously wrought weapons for the dead, with whet- 
stones to keep them keen, and graceful vases of marble and 
alabaster, carved with delicate forms, to hold the funeral food 




Bronze Dagger from Mycenae, inlaid with gold. 



and wine. Near the entrance lay bodies of slaves or captivea 
who had been offered in sacrifice. 

92. These discoveries confirmed much in "Homer." Like 
"Troy," so this ancient Mycenae had perished in fire long 
before Homer's day. But similar cities must have survived, 
in some parts of Hellas, to be visited by the wandering poet. 
From remains of many palaces, it may be seen now that the 
picture of Menelaus' palace in the Odyssey (vii, 84 ff.) was 
drawn from life, — the friezes of glittering blue glass, the 
walls flashing with bronze and gleaming with plated gold, the 
heroes and their guests feasting through the night, from gold 
vessels, in halls lighted by torches held on massive golden 
statues. 

93. Excavations in Crete. — Schliemann's discoveries amazed 
and aroused the world. Scores of scholars have followed him, 
exploring the coasts of the Aegean at many points. The most 
wonderful discoveries of all have been made in Crete, — mainly 
since the year 1900. Old legends of the Greeks represented 
that island as one source of their civilization and as the home 



§93] EXCAVATIONS IN CRETE 105 

of powerful kings before Greek history began. These legends 
used to be regarded as fables ; but we know now that they 
were based upon true tradition. At Knossos, a palace of 




The Gatk of the Lions at Mycenae. 
The huge stone at the top of the gate, supporting the lions, is 15 feet long and 
7 feet thick. Enemies could reach the gate only by passing between long 
stone walls — from behincj which archers could shoot down upon them. 

" King Minos " has been unearthed, spreading over more than 
four acres of ground, with splendid throne rooms, and with 
halls and corridors, living rooms, and store rooms. In these 



106 PREHISTORIC HELLAS [§93 

last, there were found multitudes of small clay tablets covered 
with writing, — apparently memoranda of the receipt of taxes. 
No one can yet read this ancient Cretan writing ; but the sculp- 
tures and friezes on the walls, the paintings on vases, and the 
gold designs inlaid on sword blades teach us much about this 
forgotten civilization. Especially amazing are the admirable 




Mouth of Palace Sewer at Knossos, with terracotta drain pipes, — 
showing method of joining pipes. From Baikie. 

bath rooms of the palace, with a drainage system which has 
been described as " superior to anything of the kind in Europe 
until the nineteenth century." The pipes could be flushed 
properly, and a man-trap permitted proper inspection and re- 
pair. Back of the Queen's apartments, stood a smaller room 
with a baby's bath. Like Troy and Mycenae, the remains show 
that Knossos was burned and ravaged — about 1500 B.C. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE FIRST CIVILIZATION OF HELLAS 

94. Antiquity of " Cretan Culture." — Not long ago it was the 
habit of scholars to call the Greeks a " young " people (com- 



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Head of a Bull, from a Knossos relief. 

pared with Oriental nations), and to wonder how they could 
have risen to so high a civilization almost at a bound. Some- 
times the blossoming of Greek culture was compared to the 
fabled birth of Athene, the Greek goddess of wisdom, who 
sprang to life, fully armed, from the forehead of her father 
Zeus. But now we have learned that "obscure milleniums 
preceded the sudden bloom." 

We have traced the sources of our knowledge of the early 
periods in the order of their discovery. But this is not the 
order in which the civilization developed. Troy and Mycenae 

107 



108 PREHISTORIC HELLAS [§95 

were older than " Homer " — who sang of a golden past — and 
Cretan culture runs back two thousand years before Mycenae 
was built. Still, the civilization of Mycenae was merely a 
late branch of a widespreading tree which had its roots and 
its highest development in Crete. Schliemann's "Second 
City '' at Troy belonged to an early stage of it, and his " Sixth 
City " to a late stage. 

About 1900 A.D., scholars first began to recognize this pre- 
Homeric culture. For a few years they called it Mycenaean. 




"Vaphio Cups": 3^ inches high; 8 ounces each. Found at Vaphio, in the 
Peloponnesus, in 1889 a.d., and dating back at least to 1800 or 2000 B.C. 
Probably Cretan in origin. Very delicate and yet vigorous goldsmith 
"work. See the scroll on the page opposite. 

This name is still used sometimes for the last period of it, on 
the mainland. But it is best to use the name Cretan civiliza- 
tion for the whole culture preceding the Homeric age. We are 
now to trace the rise of that culture, and its character. 

95. Native to the Aegean Regions, t— Explorations prove that 
this early civilization was not confined to Crete and Troy and 
Mycenae. It spread along the coasts and islands of the Medi- 
terranean, in patches, from Cyprus to Sardinia. It was very 
nearly an " Aegean civilization.''^ It was the work of the slim, 
short, dark-skinned men of southern Europe, between 3500 and 
1200 B.C. This culture was native, not borrowed. Steady prog- 



95] 



CRETAN CIVILIZATION 



109 




110 



PREHISTORIC HELLAS 



[§96 



ress appears from rude stone tools and crude carvings, through 
many stages, up to magnificent bronze work and highly devel- 
oped art. There are no sudden leaps, or breaks in the chain of 
development, such as might suggest the wholesale introduction 
of a foreign civilization. 

The oldest settlement that Schliemann unearthed on the bare rock 
underlying the site of Troy, we have noted, was a village of the Stone Age. 
By 3500 or 4000 b.c, people were living in such vil- 
lages (made up of round huts) all about the Aegean 
Sea. Their pottery was made by hand, not with a 
wheel ; but the decoration shows skill and love of 
beauty. Everywhere, the better sort of knives and 
arrow-heads were made from a peculiar dark hard 
stone (obsidian), which, for these regions, is found 
in any considerable quantity only in the island of 
Melos. There must have been no little trade, then, 
during this Stone Age, to scatter this material so 
widely. 

Before 2500 b.c, Crete, at least, extended this 
trade as far as Egypt and Syria. Egyptian remains 
of that period are common among the Cretan ruins. 
Crete stretches its long body across the mouth of the 
Aegean and forms the natural stepping stone from 
Egypt to Europe. Very possibly, this fact made it 
the leader in developing primitive Aegean civilization 
to higher levels. The use of bronze may have come 
from Egypt. Surely, the Cretan traders imported 
from the older civilizations much that was more 
valuable than articles of commerce. But they did 
not merely imitate and copy : they made foreign 
inventions and ideas their own, by adapting them to their own life and by 
improving upon them. 

96. The Best Stages. — At all events, by 2500 b.c, Crete had 
advanced far in the bronze age of culture ; and for the next thou- 
sand years her civilization (in material things, at least) was quite 
equal to that of Egypt. The old hand-made pottery gave way to 
admirable work on the potter's wheel ; and the vase paintings, 
of birds and beasts and plant and sea life, are vastly more life- 
like and graceful than any that Egyptian art can show. The 




Vase from Knossos 
(about 2200 e.g.), 
with characteristic 
sea-life ornament. 
From Baikie. 



§96] 



CRETAN CIVILIZATION 



111 






walls of houses were decorated with a delicate " egg-shell " porce. 
lain in artistic designs. Gold inlay work, for the decoration 
of weapons, had reached great perfection. A system of syl- 
labic writing had been developed, seemingly more advanced 
than the Egyptian. Un- 
happily scholars have not 
yet found a key to it ; but 
some believe that it may 
have been the common an- 
cestor of the Phoenician 
and the Greek alphabets.^ 
The palace at Knossos 
(§ 94) was built about 2200 
B.C., and rebuilt and im- 
proved about 1800. Its 
monarch must have ruled 
all the island, and prob- 
ably (as the Greek legends 
taught) over wide regions 
of the sea. The city had 
no walls to shut out an 
enemy: Crete relied upon 
her sea power to ward off 
invaders. We may think 

of the Cretan lawgiver, Minos, seated on his throne at Knossos, 
ruling over the surrounding seas, at about the time Abraham 
left Ur to found the Hebrew race, or a little before the law- 
giver, Hammurabi, established the Old Babylonian Empire, or 

1 One old Roman writer (Diodorus Siculus) has preserved the interesting 
fact that the Cretans themselves in his day claimed to have been the inventors 
of the alphabet. He says: "Some pretend that the Syrians were the inven- 
tors of letters, and that the Phoenicians learned from them and brought the 
art of writing to Greece. . . . But the Cretans say that the first invention 
came from Crete, and that the Phoenicians only changed the form of the let- 
ters and made the knowledge of them more general among the peoples." 
Modern Cretans had forgotten this claim for many centuries, but recent dis- 
coveries go far to prove it true. 




Cretan Writing. (Plainly, some of these 
characters are numerals. Others have a 
strong likeness to certain Greek letters, 
especially in the oldest Greek writing.) 



112 



PREHISTORIC HELLAS 



[§96 



as a contemporary of some of the beneficent pharaohs of the 
Middle Kingdom in Egypt. 

From the palace frescoes, Dr. Arthur J. Evans (the English 
pioneer in Cretan excavation) describes the brilliant life of the 

lords and ladies of the 

court : — 



Sometimes the dependants 
of the prince march into the 
palace in stately procession, 
bringing gifts. Sometimes the 
court is filled with gayly 
adorned dames and curled 
gentlemen [Cretan nobles wore 
the hair in three long curls], 
standing, sitting, flirting, ges- 
ticulating [after the fashion 
(»f southern Europeans in con- 
versation to-day] . We see the 
ladies , . . trying to "preserve 
their complexion" with veils. 
And says another of the dis- 
coverers, — "The women who 
dance and converse on Knos- 
sian walls have a self-assurance 
and sparkle that modern belles 
might envy." Frequently, 
too, the Courtis pictured watch- 
ing a troop of bull trainers 
tame wild bulls.^ 




So-called Throne of Minos in the palace 
at Knossos. Says Baikie {Sea Kings of 
Crete, 72) : " No more ancient throne ex- 
ists in Europe, or probably in the world, 
and none whose associations are anything 
like so full of interest," 



The chief article of male dress vs^as a linen cloth hanging 
from the waist or drawn into short trousers (like the dress of 
men on the Egyptian monuments). To this, except in war or 
hunting, the noble sometimes added a short, sleeveless mantle, 
fastened over one shoulder with a jeweled pin; and a belt, 



1 The bull was a favorite subject for Cretan art. See some illustrations in 
these pages. Compare also the later story of the Athenian hero Theseus and 
the Cretan Minotaur (bull), in any collection of Greek legends, as in Haw- 
thorne's Tanglewood Tale$. • 



§96] 



CRETAN CIVILIZATION 



113 



drawn tight about the waist, always carried his dagger, inlaid 
ivith gold figures. Women's dress was elaborate, with " care- 
ful fitting, fine sewing, and exquisite embroidery." The skirts 
were bell-shaped' — like a modern fashion of fifty years ago — 
and flounced with ruffles ; and the bodice was close-fitting, low- 
necked, and short-sleeved, — much more like female dress to-day 
than the later Greek and Roman robes were. Men and women 




Cooking Utensils, found in one tomb at Knossos. 

alike wore gold bracelets and rings, and women added long coils 
of beaded necklaces. 

Each home wove its own cloth, as we learn from the loom- 
weights in every house. Each home, too, had its stone mortars 
for grinding the daily supply of meal. Kitchen utensils were 
varied and numerous. They include perforated skimmers and 
strainers, and charcoal carriers, and many other devices 
strangely modern in shape. Most cooking was done over an 
open fire of sticks — though sometimes there was a sort of 
recess in a hearth, over which a kettle stood. When the de- 
stroying foe came upon Knossos, one carpenter left his kit of 
tools hidden under a stone slab; and among these we find 



114 



PREHISTORIC HELLAS 



(§97 



" saws, hammers, adze, chisels heavy and light, awls, nails, files, 
and axes." They are of bronze, of course, but in shape they 
are so like our own that it seems probable that this handicraft 
passed down its skill without a break from tHe earliest Euro- 
pean civilization to the 
present. One huge cross- 
cut saw, like our lumber- 
man's, was found in a 
mountain town, — used 
probably to cut the great 
trees there into columns 
for the palaces. 

97. The dark side of this 
splendid civilization has 
to do with its government 
and the organization of 
society. Here, Oriental 
features prevailed. The 
monarch was absolute; 
and a few nobles were the 
only others who found 
life easy and pleasant. 
The masses were far more 
abject and helpless than 
in later Greek history. 
The direct cause of the 
destruction of Cretan cul- 
ture was a series of barbarian invasions; but the remains 
show that the best stages of art had already passed away. 
Probably the invasions were so completely successful only be- 
cause of internal decay, such as usually comes to despotic states 
after a period of magnificence. Some excavators think they 
find evidence that the invaders were assisted by an uprising of 
the oppressed masses. In any event, fortunately, many of the 
better features of this early Aegean civilization were adopted 
by the conquerors and preserved for time to come. 



- 


1 


-°-=f""^""*°"' 1 




^h, 




SMmi 


MOH{f^^--v If /?^ 


^^^h^^^ 




i^w 


- \^^^ 


^ 



Cretan Vase of later period, showing a 
tendency to use " conventionalized " orna- 
ment. Critics believe that such vases in- 
dicate a period of decay in Cretan art. 



§97] CRETAN CIVILIZATION 115 

For Further Reading. — Specially suggested : Davis' Beadings, 
Vol. I, No. 32, gives an interesting extract from an account of Cretan 
remains by] one of the discoverers. Bury's History of Greece, 7-11, on 
Cretan culture; 11-33, on remains near Mycenae (half these pages are 
given to illustrations) ; 65-69, on the Homeric poems. The student may 
best omit or disregard Professor Bury's frequent discussions as to vs^hether 
Cretans or Trojans were "Greeks." The important thing about each 
new wave of invasion is not its race, but its kind of culture, and where 
that culture came from. 

Additional, for students who wish wider reading : Hawes, Crete the 
Fore-runner of Greece; or Baikie, Sea Kings of Crete. (Appendix.) 



CHAPTER X 

THE HOMERIC AGE 

ORIGIN 

98. The Achaeans. — Between 1500 and 1200 b.c. a great 
change took place in Greece. The civilization pictured by 
Homer differs greatly from the earlier one. It was not a 
development from the earlier : it was a separate culture, from a 
different source. The Mycenaeans and Cretans buried their 
dead, worshiped ancestors, used no iron, and lived frugally, 
mainly on fish and vegetable diet. Homer's Greeks burn their 
dead, adore a sun god, use iron swords, and feast all night 
mightily on whole roast oxen. So, too, in dress, manners, and 
personal appearance, as far as we can tell, the two are widely 
different. The early Greeks, as their pictures show, were 
short, dark, black-eyed, like the modern Greeks and like all 
the other aborigines of southern Europe. But Homer de- 
scribes his Greeks, or at least his chieftains, as tall, fair, 
yellow-haired, and blue-eyed. In many ways, too, their civi- 
lization was ruder and more primitive than the one it replaced. 

This second civilization of Hellas is called Achaean, — the 
name which " Homer '^ gives to the Greeks of his time. These 
Achaeans were part of a vigorous race dwelling in central 
Europe. They were semibarbarians in that home ; hut some 
fortunate chance had taught them to use iron. About 1500 B.C. 
bands of these fair-haired, blue-eyed, ox-eating warriors, drawn 
by the splendor and riches of the south, broke into Hellas, as 
barbarians of the north so many times since have broken into 
southern Europe. These mighty-limbed strangers, armed with 
long iron swords, established themselves among the short, 

116 



§99] ACHAEAN CONQUESTS 117 

dark, bronze-weaponed natives, dwelt in their cities, became 
their chiefs, married their women, and possessed the land. 

99. Nature of their Invasion. — The occupation of the land by 
the invaders was a slow process, involving unrecorded misery, 
generation after generation, for the gentler, peace-loving na- 
tives. An Egyptian inscription of the period declares that 
" the islands were restless and disturbed," — and indeed the 
Achaean rovers reached even Egypt in their raids (§ 31). 
During most of the period, the newcomers merely filtered into 
Hellas, band by band, seizing a little island, or a valley, at a 
time. Occasionally, larger forces warred long and desperately 
about some stronghold. Knossos, without defensive walls, fell 
early before a fleet of sea-rovers. But in walled cities, like 
Troy and Mycenae, the old civilization lived on for three cen- 
turies. Much of the time, no doubt, there was peace and 
intercourse between the Achaeans and such cities ; but finally 
the invaders mustered in force enough to master even these. 
Homer's ten-year Trojan War may be based upon one of these 
closing struggles. 

The fair-haired Achaeans imposed their language upon the 
older natives (as conquerors commonly do) ; but, in course of 
time, their blood was absorbed into that of the more numerous 
conquered people — as has happened to all northern invaders 
into southern lands, before and siuce. The physical character- 
istics of Homer's Achaeans left no more trace in the later 
Greeks, than the tall, yellow-haired Goths who conquered 
Spain and Italy in the fifth century after Christ have left in 
those countries. 

The Achaean and Cretan cultures blended more equally than the 
two races did, — though not till the splendor and most of the art 
of the older civilization had been destroyed. The change of 
language explains in part the loss of the art of writing, — 
which probably had been the possession of only a small class 
of scribes, in any case. But the common people, we may be 
sure, clung tenaciously to their old customs and habits of life, 
and especially to their religion. When next we see the Greek 



118 HOMER'S GREECE — THE ACHAEANS [§100 

civilization clearly, the old worship of ancestors, of which 
the Homeric poems contain no mention, had reappeared and 
mingled with the newer worship of the Achaean gods. 
Some features of the Achaean age are described below. 

THE TRIBAL ORGANIZATION 

100. The Clan. — In early times the smallest unit in Greek 
society was not a family like ours, but a clan (or gens). Each 
clan was a group of kindred, an enlarged kind of family. Some 
clans contained perhaps a score of members ; others contained 
many score. 

The nearest descendant of the forefather of the clan, count- 
ing from oldest son to oldest son, was the clan elder, or " king." 
Kinship and worship were the two ties which held a clan to- 
gether. These two bonds were really one, for the clan religion 
was a worship of clan ancestors. If provided with pleasing meals 
at proper times and invoked with magic formulas (so the belief 
ran), the ghosts of the ancient clan elders would continue to 
aid their children. The food was actually meant for the ghost. 
Milk and wine were poured into a hollow in the ground, while 
the clan elder spoke sacred formulas inviting the dead to eat.^ 

TJiis worship was secret. The clan tomb was the altar, and 
the clan elder was the only lawful priest. For a stranger even 
to see the worship was to defile it ; for him to learn the sacred 
formulas of the clan worship was to secure power over the gods.^ 
It followed that marriage became a " religious " act. The woman 
renounced her own gods, and was accepted by her husband's 
gods into their clan. Her father, of course, or some male rela- 

1 Travelers describe similar practices among primitive peoples to-day. A 
Papuan chief prays: "Compassionate Father! Here is food for you. Eat 
it, and be kind to us! " 

2 Primitive races think of words as in some strange way related to the 
things they stand for (as the spirit to the body) . This is one reason for belief 
in " charms." Those who knew the right words could " charm " the gods to 
do their will. The Romans, in the days of their power, always kept the real 
name of their chief god a secret, lest some foe might compel or induce him 
to surrender the city. 



§ 103] THE TRIBAL CITY 119 

tive, renounced for her, and gave her to the bridegroom (the 
origin of "giving in marriage" to-day). After that, she and 
her future children were in law and in religion no longer " re- 
lated" to her father and his clan. Legal relationship, and 
inheritance of property, came through males only. 

101. Later Family Worship. — In like manner in later times, as the 
families of the clan became distinct units, each came to have its sepa- 
rate family worship. The Hearth was the family altar. Near it were 
grouped the Penates, or images of household gods who watched over the 
family. The father was the priest. Before each meal, he poured out on 
the Hearth the libation, or food-offering, to the family gods and asked 
their blessing. The family tomb was near the house, " so that the sons," 
says Euripides (a later Greek poet; § 221), "in entering and leaving 
their dwelling, might always meet their fathers and invoke them" 

102. The Tribe. — Long before history began, clans united 
Into larger units. In barbarous society the highest unit is the 
tribe, which is a group of clans living near together and believ- 
ing in a common ancestor. In Greece the clan elder of the 
leading clan was the king of the tribe and its priest. 

103. The Tribal City. — Originally a tribe dwelt in several 
clan villages in the valleys around some convenient hill. On 
the hilltop was the place of common worship. A ring wall, at 
a convenient part of the slope, easily turned this sacred place 
into a citadel. In hilly Greece many of these citadels grew up 
near together; and so, very early, groups of tribes combined 
further. Perhaps one of a group would conquer the others and 
3ompel them to tear down their separate citadels and to move 
their temples to its center. TJiis made a city. The chief of 
the leading tribe then became the priest-king of the city. 

Sometimes, of course, a tribe grew into the city stage with- 
out absorbing other tribes ; but, in general, as clans federated 
into tribes, so tribes federated into cities, either peaceably or 
through war. The later Athenians had a tradition that in very 
early times the hero TJieseus founded their city by bringing 
together four tribes living in Attica. 



120 HOMER'S GREECE — THE ACHAEANS [§104 

104. The City the Political Unit. — If the cities could have combined 
into larger units, Greece might have become a ''■nation-state,'''' like modern 
England or France. But the Greeks, in the time of their glory, never 
got beyond a city-state. To them the same word meant " city " and 
"state." A union of cities, by which any of them gave up its complete 
independence, was repugnant to Greek feeling. One city might hold 
other cities in subjection ; but it never admitted their people to any kind of 
citizenship.^ Nor did the subject cities dream of asking such a thing. 
What they wanted, and would never cease to strive for, was to recover 
their separate independence. To each Greek, his city was his country. 

It followed, through nearly all Greek history, that the political^ rela- 
tions of one city with another five miles away were foreign relations, 
as much as its dealings with the king of Persia. 'Wars, therefore, were 
constant and cruel. Greek life was concentrated in small centers. This made 
it vivid and intense; but the division of Greek resources between so many hostile 
centers made that life brief. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE EARLY CITY-STATE 

105. The King. — The city had three political elements — 
king, council of chiefs, and popular assembly. In these we 
may see the germs of later monarchic, aristocratic, and demo- 
cratic governments. (For these terms, see § 85, note.) 

The king was leader in war, judge in peace, and priest at all 
times. His power was much limited by custom and by the 
two other political orders. 

106. A council of chiefs aided the king, — and checked him. 
These chiefs were originally the clan elders and the members 
of the royal family. /Socially thej were the king's equals ; and 
in government he could not do anything in defiance of their 
wish. If a ruler died without a grown-up son, the council 
could elect a king, although they chose usually from the royal 
family. 

1 Can the student see a connection between this fact and the " exclusive " 
character of clan and tribal and city-worship, as described above ? 

2 "Political" means "relating to government." The word must be used 
frequently in history. In other relations, as in trade and religion and cul- 
ture, the Greek cities did not think of one another as foreigners, to any such 
degree as in political matters. 



§ 108] GOVERNMENT 121 

107. The Assembly. — The common freemen came together 
for worship and for games ; and sometimes the king called 
them together, to listen to plans that had been adopted by him 
and the chiefs. Then the freemen shouted approval or muttered 
disapproval. They could not start new movements. There 
were no regular meetings and few spokesmen, and the general 
reverence for the chiefs made it a daring deed for a common 
man to brave them. If the chiefs and king agreed, it was easy 
for them to get their way with the Assembly. 

However, even in war, when the authority of the nobles was 
greatest, the Assembly had to be persuaded: it could not be 
ordered. Homer shows that sometimes a common man ven- 
tured to oppose the " kings." 

Thus, in one Assembly before Trey, the Greeks break away to seize 
their ships and return home. Odysseus hurries among them, and by per- 
suasion and threats forces them back to the Assembly, until only Thersites 
bawls on, — "Thersites, uncontrolled of speech, whose mind was full of 
words wherewith to strive against the chiefs. Hateful was he to Achilles 
above all, and to Odysseus, /or them he was wont to revile. But now with 
shrill shout he poured forth his uphraidings even upon goodly Agamem- 
non.'*'' Odysseus, it is true, rebukes him sternly and smites him into 
silence, while the crowd laughs. " Homer " sang to please the chieftains, 
his patrons, — and so he represents Thersites as a cripple, ugly and un- 
popular ; but there must have been such popular opposition to the chiefs, 
now and then, or the minstrel would not have mentioned such an incident 
at all. Says a modern scholar, — A chieftain who had been thwarted, 
perhaps, by some real Thersites during the day, " would over his evening 
cups enjoy the poet's travesty, and long for the good old times when 
[Odysseus] could put down impertinent criticism by the stroke of 
his knotty scepter." i 

SOCIETY AND INDUSTRY 

108. Society was simple. The Homeric poems attribute 
wealth and luxury to a few places (where probably some frag- 
ments of the Cretan civilization survived); but these' are 

^ Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No, 33, reproduces the best Homeric account of 
an " Assembly " in war time. It contains also the Thersites story complete. 



122 HOMER'S GREECE — THE ACHAEANS [§109 

plainly exceptions to the general rule. When the son of 
Odysseus leaves his native Ithaca and visits Menelaus, he is 
astounded by the splendor of the palace, with its " gleam as of 
sun and moon," and whispers to his companion : — 

" Mark the flashing of bronze through the echomg halls, and the flashing 
of gold and of amber and of silver and of ivory. Such like, methinks, 
is the court of Olympian Zeus. . . . Wonder comes over me as I look." i 

But mighty Odysseus had built his palace with his own 
hands. It has been well called — from the poet's description 
— "a rude farmhouse, where swine wallow in the court." And 
the one petty island in which Odysseus was head-king held 
scores of yet poorer " kings." So, too, when Odysseus is ship- 
wrecked on an important island, he finds the daughter of the 
chief king — the princess Nausicaa — doing a washing, with 
her band of maidens (treading out the dirt by trampling the 
clothes with their bare feet in the water of a running brook). 
Just before, the " queen " was pictured, busy in gathering to- 
gether the palace linen for this event. Such descriptions are 
the typical ones in the poems. 

109. Manners were harsh. In the Trojan War, the Greeks 
left the bodies of the slain enemy unburied, to be half devoured 
by packs of savage dogs that hung about the camp for such 
morsels. The common boast was to have given a foe's body to 
the dogs.2 When the noble Trojan hero. Hector, falls, the 
Greek kings gather about the dead body, " and no one came who 
did not add his wound.'^ The chiefs fought in bronze and iron 
armor, usually in chariots. The common free men followed on 
foot, without armor or effective weapons, and seem to have 
counted for little in war. Ordinary prisoners became slaves as 
a matter of course. But when the chiefs were taken, they were 

1 Read the story in the Ochjssey, or in Vol. I, No. 37, of Davis' Readings. 

2 The Iliad opens with the story of a pestilence, which almost drove the 
Greeks from Troy. The poet ascribes it to the anger of the Sun-god, Apollo, 
who shot his arrows upon the camp. Little wonder that the sun's rays, in a 
warm climate, should produce pestilence,* under such conditions! 



§ 110] MANNERS AND INDUSTRIES 123 

murdered in cold blood, unless they could tempt the victor to 
spare them for ransom. Female captives, even princesses, ex- 
pected no better fate than slavery. 

On the other hand, there are hints of natural and happy 
family life, of joyous festivals, and games and dances, and of 
wholesome, contented work.^ 

110. Occupations. — The mass of the people were small farmers^ 
though their houses were grouped in villages.^ Even the kings 
tilled their farms, in part at least, with their own hands, 
Odysseus can drive the oxen at the plow and " cut a clean fur- 
row " ; and when the long days begin he can mow all day with 
the crooked scythe, <' pushing clear until late eventide.'' 
Slaves were few, except about the great chiefs. There they 
served as household servants and as farm hands; and they 
seem to have been treated kindly.^ There had appeared, how- 
ever, a class of miserable landless freemen, who hired them- 
selves to farmers. When the ghost of Achilles (the invincible 
Greek chieftain) wishes to name to Odysseus the most unhappy 
lot among mortals, he selects that of the hired servant (§ 112). 

Artisans and smiths were found among the retainers of the 
great chiefs. They were highly honored, but their skill was 
far inferior to that of the Cretan age. Some shields and 
inlaid weapons of that earlier period had passed into the hands 
of the Achaeans ; and these were always spoken of as the work 
of Hephaestus, the god of fire and of metal work. 

A separate class of traders had not arisen. The chiefs, in the 
intervals of farm labor, turned to trading voyages now and 
then, and did not hesitate to increase their profits by piracy. 
It was no offense to ask a stranger whether he came as a pirate 
or for peaceful trade. (Odyssey, iii, 60-70.) 



1 Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 35. 

2 For farm life, see an extract in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 39. 

3 When Odysseus returned from his twenty years of war and wandering, 
he made himself known first to a faithful swineherd and one other servant — 
both slaves; and "They threw their arms round wise Odysseus and passion- 
ately kissed his face and neck. So likewise did Odysseus kiss their heads and 
hands." 



124 HOMER'S GREECE — THE ACHAEANS [§111 

111. Religious Ideas. — It has been said above that the 
Achaeans brought in a new worship of the forces of nature. 
Their lively fancy personified these in the forms and characters 
of men and women — built in a somewhat more majestic mold 
than human men. The great gods lived on cloud-capped 
Mount Olympus, and passed their days in feasting and laugh- 
ter and other pleasures. When the chief god, Zeus, slept, 
things sometimes went awry, for the other gods plotted against 
his plans. His wife Hera was exceedingly jealous — for which 
she had much reason — and the two had many a family 
wrangle. Some of the gods went down to aid their favorites 
in war, and were wounded by human weapons. 

The twelve great Olympian deities were as follows (the Latin names 
are given in parentheses) : — 

Zeus (Jupiter), the supreme god; god of the sky; "father of gods 
and men." 

Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea. 

Apollo^ the sun god ; god of wisdom, poetry, prophecy, and medicine. 

Ares (Mars), god of war. 

Hephaestus (Vulcan), god of fire — the lame smith. 

Hermes (Mercury), god of the wind ; messenger; god of cunning, of 
thieves, and of merchants, 

Hera (Juno), sister and wife of Zeus; queen of the sky. 

Athene (Minerva), goddess of wisdom ; female counterpart of Apollo. 

Artemis (Diana), goddess of the moon, of maidens, and of hunting. 

Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of love and beauty. 

Demeter (Ceres), the earth goddess — controlling fertility. 

Hestia (Vesta), the deity of the home ; goddess of the hearth fire. 

The Greeks thought also of all the world about them as 
peopled by a multitude of lesser local gods and demigods — 
spirits of spring and wood and river and hill — all of whom, 
too, they personified as glorious youths or maidens. Surely to 
give the gods beautiful human forms, rather than the revolting 
bodies of lower animals and reptiles (§ 24) was an advance, 
even though it fell far short of the noble religious ideas of the 
Hebrews and Persians. And in a multitude of legends the 
Greek poets gave to these gods a delightful charm, which has 



§ 112] RELIGION AND ^MORALS 125 

made their stories a lasting possession of the world's culture/ — 
and which indeed kept this worship alive among the later 
Greeks long after the primitive ideas in that worship were 
really outgrown. Even in the early period, noble religious 
thoughts sometimes appear. In the Odyssey the poet exclaims : 
" Verily, the blessed gods love not f roward deeds, but they 
reverence justice and the righteous acts of men." 

112. Ideas of a Future Life. — The Greeks believed in a place 
of terrible punishment [Tartarus) for a few great offenders 
against the gods, and in an Elysium of supreme pleasure for a 
very few others particularly favored by the gods. But for the 
mass of men the future life was to be " a washed-out copy of 
the brilliant life on earth" — its pleasures and pains both 
shadowy. Thus Odysseus tells how he met Achilles in the 
home of the dead : — 

" And he knew me straightway, when he had drunk the dark blood [of 
a sacrifice to the dead] ; yea, and he wept aloud, and shed big tears as he 
stretched forth his hands in his longing to reach me. But it might not be, 
for he had now no steadfast strength nor power at all in moving, such as 
was aforetime in his supple limbs. . . . But lo, other spirits of the dead 
that be departed stood sorrowing, and each one asked of those that were 
dear to them." — Odyssey, xi, 390 ff. 

And in their discourse, Achilles exclaims sorrowfully : — 

*' Nay, speak not comfortably to me of death, great Odysseus. 
Bather would I live on ground as the hirelijig of another^ even with a 
lack-land man who had no great livelihood, than hear sway among all the 
dead.'^ 

For Further Reading. — Specially suggested: Davis' Readings, 
Vol. I, Nos. 33-38 (most of these already referred to in footnotes). 
Additional : Bury, pp. 69-79. 

1 The legends of heroes and demigods, like Hercules, Theseus, and Jason, are 
retailed for young people charmingly by Hawthorne, Gayley, Guerber, and 
Kingsley. The stories have no historical value that could be made clear in a 
book like this ; but every boy and girl should know them. 



CHAPTER XI 

FROM THE ACHAEANS TO THE PERSIAN WARS 
(1000-500 B.C.) 

A NEW AGE 

113. The Dorian Conquest. — The Achaean conquests closed 
about 1200 B.C. For two centuries Hellas was troubled only 
by the usual petty wars between small states. But, about 
1000 B.C., the revival of culture was checked again for a hundred 
years by new destructive invasions from the north. 

The new barbarians called themselves Dorians. They seem 
to have been closely allied in laoguage to the Achaeans ; and 
they were probably merely a rear guard which had stopped 
for two hundred years somewhere in northern Hellas. They 
conquered because they had adopted a new and better military 
organization. The Achaeans fought still in Homeric fashion, 
— the chiefs in chariots, and their followers as an unwieldy, 
ill-armed mob. The Dorians introduced the use of heavy- 
armed infantry, with long spears, in regular array and close 
ranks. 

By 900 B.C., the movements of the tribes had ceased. The 
conquering Dorians had settled down, mainly in the Pelopoyi- 
nesus. This district had been the center of the Mycenaean 
and Achaean glory, but it now lost its leadership in culture. 
When civilization took a new start in Hellas, soon after 900, 
it was from new centers — in Attica and in Asia Minor. 

114. Phoenician Influence. — The civilization which the Achae- 
ans and Dorians had destroyed at Mycenae and Crete ivas 
restored to them iyipart by the Phoenicians. After the overthrow 
of Cretan power, Phoenicia for many centuries was the leading 
sea-power of the Mediterranean (1500-600 e.g.). Especially 

126 



§ 115] DORIAN GREECE 127 

among the islands and coasts of the Aegean, did her traders 
barter with the inhabitants (much as English traders did two 
hundred years ago with American Indians), tempting them 
with strange wares of small value, and counting it best gain of 
all if they could lure curious maidens on board their black 
ships for distant slave markets. In return, however, they made 
many an unintentional payment. Language shows that the 
Phoenicians gave to the Greeks the names (and so, no doubt, 
the use) of linen, myrrh, cinnamon, frankincense, soap, lyres, 
cosmetics, and writing tablets. The forgotten art of writing 
they introduced again, — this time with a true alphabet. But 
the lively Hellenes were not slavish imitators. Whatever the 
strangers brought them, they improved and made their own. 

115. The Gap in our Knowledge. — The Dorians had no 
Homer, as the Achaeans had, nor did they leave magnifi- 
cent monuments, as the Mycenaeans did. Accordingly, after 
Homer, there is a blank in our knowledge for nearly Jive cen- 
turies. Great changes, however, took place during these 
obscure centuries ; and in a rough way we can see what they 
were, by companng Homeric Greece with the historic Greece that 
is revealed when the curtain rises again. 

This " rising of the curtain '^ took place about 650 B.C. By 
that time the Greeks had begun to use the alphabet freely. 
The next 150 years, however, merely continued movements 
which were already well under way; and the whole period, 
from the Dorian conquest to the year 500, can be treated as a 
unit (§§116fe.). 

To that half thousand years belonged six great movements, (i) The 
Hellenes awoke to a feeling that they were one people as compared with 
other peoples. (2) They extended Hellenic culture widely by coloniza- 
tion. (3) The system of government everywhere underwent great 
change. (4) Sparta became a great military power, whose leadership 
in war the other Greek states were willing to recognize. (5) Athens 
became a democracy. (6) A great intellectual development appeared, 
manifested in architecture, painting, sculpture, poetry, and philosophy. 

Each of the six movements will be described briefly. 



128 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 116 

I. UNITY OF FEELING 

116. Greeks came to think of all Hellenes as one race, compared 
with other peoples — in spite of many subdivisions among 
themselves. The Iliad does not make it clear whether Homer 
looked upon the Trojans as Greeks or not. Apparently he 
cared little about the question. Five hundred years later such 
a question would have been a first consideration to every 
Greek. The Greeks had not become one nation : that is, they 
had not come under the same government. But they had 
come to believe in a kinship with each other, to take pride in 
their common civilization, and to set themselves apart from 
the rest of the world. The three chief forces which had 
created this oneness of feeling were language, literature, and 
the Olympian religion, with its games and oracles. 

a. The Greeks understood each other'' s dialects, while the 
men of other speech about them they called " Barbarians," or 
babblers {Bar'-bar-oi). This likeness of language made it possible 
for all Greeks to possess the same literature. The poems of 
Homer were sung and recited in every village for centuries ; 
and the universal pride in Homer, and in the glories of the 
later literature, had much to do in binding the Greeks into 
one people. 

b. The poets invented a system of relationship. The first 
inhabitant of Hellas, they said, was a certain Hellen, who had 
three sons, Aeolus, Dorus, and Xuthus. Xuthus became the 
father of Achaeus and Ion. Aeolus, Dorus, Achaeus, and Ion 
were the ancestors of all Hellenes, — in the four great divi- 
sions, Aeoliaiis, Dorians, Achaeans, and lonians. This system 
of fables made it easier for the Greeks to believe themselves con- 
nected by blood. 

c. Three special features of the Olympian religion helped to 
bind Greeks together, — the Olympic Games, the Delphic Oracle, 
and the various Amphictyonies (§§ 117, 118, 119). 

117. The Olympic Games. — To the great festivals of some of 
the gods, men flocked from all Hellas. This was especially 



§117] 



ONENESS OF CULTURE 



129 



true of the Olympic games. These were celebrated each fourth 
year at Olympia, in Elis, in honor of Zeus. The contests con- 
sisted of foot raceSj chariot races, wrestling, and boxing. The 
victors were felt to have won the highest honor open to any 
Greek. They received merely an olive wreath at Olympia ; 
but at their homes they were honored with inscriptions and 




Ruins of the Entrance to the Stadium {athletic field) at Olympia. 



statues. Only Greeks could take part in the contests, and there 
was a strong feeling that all wars between Greek states should 
be suspended during the month of the festival. 

To these games came merchants, to secure the best market 
for rare wares. Heralds proclaimed treaties there — as the best 
way to make them known through all Hellas. Poets, orators, 
and artists gathered there ; and gradually the intellectual con- 
tests and exhibitions became the most important feature of 
the meeting. The oration or poem or statue which was praised 



130 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 118 

by the crowds at Olympia had received the approval of the 
most select and intelligent judges that could be brought 
together anywhere in the world. 

These intellectual contests, however, did not become part of the 
sacred games. Nor was any prize given to the winner. The four-year 
periods between the games were called Olympiads. These periods finally 
became the Greek units in counting time : all events were dated from what 
was believed to be the first recorded Olympiad, beginning in 776 b.c. An 
admirable account of the Olympic Games is given in Davis' Eeadings, 
Vol. I, No. 44. But the student will enjoy even more the vivid picture in 
Dr. Davis' novel, A Victor of Salamis. 

118. The Delphic Oracle. — Apollo, the sun god, was also the 
god of prophecy. One of his chief temples was at Delphi, far 
up the slopes of Mount Parnassus, amid wild and rugged 
scenery. Erom a fissure in the ground, within the temple, 
volcanic gases poured forth. A priestess would, when desired, 
inhale the gas until she passed into a trance (or seemed to do 
so) ; and, while in this state, she was supposed to see into the 
future, by the aid of the god. The advice of this " oracle " was 
sought by men and by governments throughout all Hellas. (See 
further in Davis' Headings, Vol. I, Nos. 41-43.) 

119. Amphictyoniec. — There was an ancient league of Greek 
tribes to protect the temple at Delphi. This was known as 
the Amphictyonic League (league of "dwellers-round-about"). 
Smaller amphictyonies, for the protection of other temples, 
were common in Greece. In early Greek history, they were 
the only hint of a movement toward a union of states. All 
these leagues, it is true, were strictly religious in purpose, and 
not at all like political unions. The Delphic Amphictyony, 
however, did in a way represent the whole Greek people. All 
important states sent delegates to its " Council," which held 
regular meetings; and every division of the Greek race felt 
that it had a share in the oracle and in its League. 

120. Dorians and lonians. — At the cost of some digression, this is 
the best place to note that through all later Greek history (after 6oo B.C.) 
the two leading races were the Dorians and the lonians. (See § 1 16 &, above.) 



5 1^1] EXPANSION AND COLONIZATION 131 

By 6oo B.C. the Dorians had their chief strength in the Peloponnesus, 
while the lonians held Attica and most of the islands of the Aegean. 
The lonians seem to have been descendants of the original inhabitants 
of Greece, mixed with tribes of the Achaean invasion. 

Athens was the leading city of the lonians. The Athenians were sea- 
farers and traders ; they preferred a democratic government ; they were 
open to new ideas — " always seeking some new thing " ; and they were 
interested in art and literature. Sparta was the leading city of the 
Dorians. The Spartans were a military settlement of conquerors, in a 
fertile valley, organized for defense and ruling over slave tillers of the 
soil. They were warriors, not traders; aristocratic, not democratic; 
conservative, not progressive; practical, not artistic. 

Some writers used to explain the differences between Athens and Sparta 
on the ground of race, and teach that all lonians were naturally demo- 
cratic and progressive, while all Dorians were naturally aristocratic and 
conservative. But it has been pointed out that Dorian colonies in Italy 
and Sicily (like Syracuse) resembled Athens more than they did Sparta. 
Their physical surroundings were more like those of Athens, also. To-day 
scholars look with suspicion upon all attempts to explain differences in 
civilization on the ground of inborn race tendencies. For Sparta and 
Athens, the explanation certainly is found mainly in the difference in 
physical surroundings. 

II. EXPANSION BY COLONIZATION 

121. First Period. — While Greek civilization was becoming 
more united in feeling, it was becoming more scattered in 
space. The old tribes which the Dorians drove out of the 
Peloponnesus jostled other tribes into motion all over Greece, 
and some of the fugitives carried the seeds of Greek culture 
more widely than before along the coasts of the Aegean. 

This period of colonization lasted about a century, from 
1000 to 900 B.C. Its most important fact was the Hellenizing 
of the western coast of Asia Minor. Some of this district had 
been Greek before ; but now large reinforcements arrived from 
the main Greek peninsula, and all non-Hellenic tribes were 
subdued or driven out. Large bodies of Ionian refugees from 
the Peloponnesus had sought refuge in Ionian Attica. But 
Attica could not support them all ; and soon they began to 



132 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 122 

cross the sea to Asia Minor. There they established them- 
selves in twelve great cities, of which the most important were 
Miletus and Ephesus. The whole middle district of that coast 
took the name Ionia, and was united in an amphictyony. 

122. Second Period. — A century later, there began a still 
wider colonizing movement, which went on for two hundred 
years (800-600 b.c), doubling the area of Hellas and spread- 
ing it far outside the old Aegean home. The cause this time 
was not war. Greek cities were growing anxious to seize the 
Mediterranean commerce from the Phoenicians. The new colo- 
nies were founded largely for trading stations. 

Thus Miletus sent colony after colony to the north shore of 
the Black Sea, to control the corn trade there. Sixty Greek 
towns fringed that sea and its straits. The one city of Chalcis, 
in Euboea, planted thirty-two colonies on the TJiracian coast, 
to secure the gold and silver mines of that region. On the 
west, Sicily became almost wholly Greek, and southern Italy 
took the proud name of Magna Graecia (Great Greece). In- 
deed, settlements were sown from end to end of the Mediter- 
ranean. Among the more important of the colonies were 
Syracuse in Sicily, Tarentum, Syharis, and Croton in Italy, 
Corcyra near the mouth of the Adriatic, Massilia (Marseilles) 
in Gaul, Olynthus in Thrace, Cyrene in Africa, Byzantium at 
the Black Sea's mouth, and Naucratis in Egypt (§ 32).^ 

123. Method of Founding Colonies. — Many motives besides 
the commercial assisted t^' movement. Sometimes a city 
found its population growing too fast for its grain supply. 
Often there was danger of class struggles, so that it seemed 
well to get rid of the more adventurous of the poorer citizens. 
Perhaps some daring youth of a noble family longed for a more 
active life than he found at home, and was glad to become the 
head of a new settlement on a distant frontier. 

In any case the oracle at Delphi was first consulted. If the 
reply was favorable, announcements were made and volunteers 

1 Map study : on outline maps, or on the board, locate the districts and cities 
mentioned in §§ 121 and 122. 



1/ 



124] 



POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS 



133 



were gathered for the expedition. The mother city always 
gave the sacred fire for the new city hearth, and appointed the 
"founder." This "founder" established the new settlement 
with religious rites and distributed the inhabitants, who 
thronged in from all sides, into artificial tribes and clans. 




Ruins of the Athletic Field at Delphi. Second only to the Olympic 
Games, and similar to them, was the Festival at Delphi in honor of Apollo. 

The colonists ceased to he citizens of their old home, and the 
new city enjoyed complete independence. The colony recognized 
a religious connection with its " metropolis " (mother city), 
and of course there were often strong bonds of friendship 
between the two; but there was no political union between 
them — until Athens invented a new form of colony which will 
be described later (§ 148). 



III. CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT 

124. The Kings overthrown by Oligarchies. — Between 1000 
disappeared from every Greek city 



and 500 b.c. the "kings 



134 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 125 

except Sparta and Argos, and even in those cities they lost most 
of their old power. The change was the work of the nobles ; 
and that class divided the royal power among themselves. 
Monarchies gave way to oligarchies. 

A Homeric king, we have seen, had three kinds of duties : he 
was war chief, judge, and priest. The office of war chief could 
least safely be left to the accident of birth. Accordingly the 
nobles took away this part of the king's duties first, turning 
it over to officers whom they elected from among themselves. 
Then, as judicial work increased with the growth of city life, 
special judges were chosen to take over that part of the king's 
work. The priestly dignity was connected most closely with 
family descent (§§ 101, 102); therefore it was left longest a 
matter of inheritance. 

This, then, was the general order of the changes by which 
the rule of one man became the rule of " the few." The process 
was gradual; the means and occasion varied. A contest be- 
tween two rivals for the throne, or the dying out pf a royal 
line, or a weak king or a minor, — any of these conditions made 
it easy for the nobles to encroach upon the royal power. 

125. Oligarchies overthrown by Tyrants. — Originall}^, the aris- 
tocratic element consisted of the council of clan elders (§ 106), 
but with time it had become modified in many ways. Some- 
times the families of a few great chiefs had come to over- 
shadow the rest. In other places, groups of conquering families 
ruled the descendants of the conquered. Sometimes, perhaps, 
wealth helped to draw the line between " the few " and " the 
many." At all events, there was in all Greek cities a sharp line 
between two classes, — one calling itself " the few," " the good," 
" the noble " ; and another called by these " the many," " the 
bad," " the base.'^ 

"The few" had succeeded the kings. "The many" were 
oppressed and misgoverned, and they began to clamor for relief. 
They were too ignorant as yet to maintain themselves against 
the intelligent and better united " few " ; but the way was 
prepared for them by the " tyrants " (§ 126). 



§126] POLITICAL REVOLUTIONS 135 

Why does it matter who controls the government? The student 
should begin to think upon this matter. Government is not a matter of 
dignity mainly, but a very practical matter. It touches our daily life 
very closely. In one of our States, for many years past, a certain railroad 
has controlled the legislature. Therefore it has escaped taxation, for the 
most part, upon its immense wealth ; and every poor man in the State 
has had to pay unduly high taxes in consequence, leaving less money for 
his children's shoes and books. The same railroad has been permitted to 
charge exorbitant rates on freight. Every farmer has received too little 
for his wheat ; and every citizen has paid too much for flour. So for 
forty years, in our own day and country, big business interests have 
striven constantly to own congress and legislatures and judges and gov- 
ernors, so as to get or keep monopolies or tariff advantages or other 
special privileges, by which they have heaped up riches — which, in the 
long run, have been drawn from the homes of the working people. In 
early society, class distinctions are drawn more sharply, and class rule was 
even more tyrannical. " The few " are usually wiser than " the many " ; 
but all history proves that class rule by " the good " is sure to be a selfish, 
bad rule. 

126. " Tyrants " pave the Way for Democracies. — Before 
500 B.C. every city in the Greek peninsula, except Sparta, had 
its tyrant, or had had one. In the outlying parts of Hellas, 
tyrants were common through later history also, but by the 
year 500 they had disappeared from the main peninsula ; and 
so the tiDO centuries from 700 to 500 B.C. are sometimes called the 
" Age of Tyrants^ 

In Greek Mstory a tyrant is not necessarily a had or cruel ruler : 
he is simply a man who by force seizes supreme power. But 
arbitrary rule was hateful to the Greeks, and the murder of a 
tyrant seemed to them a good act. Sometimes, too, the 
selfishness and cruelty of such rulers justified the detestation 
which still clings to the name. But at the worst the tyrants 
seem to have been a necessary evil, to break down the greater 
evil of the selfish oligarchies. Many tyrants were generous, 
far-sighted rulers, building public works, developing trade, 
patronizing art and literature ; but their main value in history 
was this : they paved the way for democracy. 



136 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 12? 

Sometimes a tyrant had been an ambitious noble ; sometimes 
a man of the people, by birth. In either case, he usually won 
his mastery by coming forward, in some crisis of civil strife, 
as the champion of " the many.'' When he had made himself 
tyrant of his city, he surrounded himself with paid soldiers ; 
but he sought also to keep the favor of the masses, who had 
helped him to the throne. The nobles he could not conciliate. 
These he burdened with taxes, oppressed, exiled, and murdered. 
The story goes that Periander, tyrant of Corinth, sent to the 
tyrant of Miletus to ask his advice in government. The Mile- 
sian took the messenger through a grain field, striking off the 
finest and tallest ears as they walked, and sent him back with- 
out other answer. 

Thus when the tyrants themselves were overthrown, democ- 
racy had a chance. The nobles were weaker than before, and 
the people had gained confidence. In the Ionian cities, the 
next step was usually a democratic government. In Dorian 
parts of Greece, more commonly there followed an aristocracy. 
But this was always much broader, and less objectionable, 
than the older oligarchies. The tyrants had done their work 
effectively.^ 

This, then, was the general order of change : the kings give way to 
oligarchies ; the oligarchies are overthrown by tyrants ; and the tyrants, 
unintentionally, prepare the way for the rule of the people. We shall 
now trace the changes, with more detail, in the two leading cities of 
Hellas, — Sparta and Athens. The first had less change than any other 
city. The second led the movement. 

IV. RISE OF SPARTA TO MILITARY HEADSHIP 

127. Changes in Early Sparta. — The invading Dorians founded 
many petty states in the Peloponnesus. For a time one of the 
weakest of these was Sparta. Her territory covered only a 

1 Exercise. — Contrast the "tyrants" with the Homeric kings, — as to 
origin of power ; as to limitation by custom and public opinion ; as to security 
in their positions. 



5128] SPARTA'S HEADSHIP 137 

few square miles. It was shut off from the sea, and it was 
surrounded by powerful neighbors. 

The later Spartans attributed their rise from these condi- 
tions to the reforms of a certain Lycurgus. Certainly, about 
the year 900, whether the reformer's name was Lycurgus or 
not, the Spartans adopted peculiar institutions which made 
them a marked people. The new laws and customs disciplined 
and hardened them ; and they soon entered upon a brilliant 
career of conquest. Before 700, they had subdued all Laconia; 
before 650, Messenia also ; while the other states of the Pelo- 
ponnesus, except hostile Argos, had become their allies. 

128. Government. — Sparta had two kings. An old legend 
explained this peculiar arrangement as due to the birth of twin 
princes. At all events in this city the royal power was weakened 
by division, and so the nobles were less tempted to abolish it. 

There was also a Senate of thirty elders. In practice, this 
body was the most important part of the government. The 
kings held two of the seats, and the people elected the twenty- 
eight other senators. 

No one under sixty years of age could be chosen. The candidates were 
led through the Assembly in turn, and as each passed, the people shouted. 
Judges, shut up in a room from which they could not see the candidates, 
listened to the shouts and gave the vacancy to the one whose appearance 
had called out the loudest welcome. Aristotle, a later Greek writer, calls 
this method "childish" ; but it has an interesting relation to our viva- 
voce voting, where a chairman decides, in the first instance, by noise. 

A popular Assembly of all Spartans chose senators and other 
officers, and decided important matters laid before it — subject 
to a veto by the Senate. The Assembly had no right to intro- 
duce new measures, and the common Spartan could not even 
take part in the debate. 

About 725 B.C. new magistrates, called Ephors, became the 
chief rulers. Five Ephors were chosen each year by the Assem- 
hly, and any Spartan might be elected. The Ephors called the 
Assembly, presided over it, and acted as judges in all important 
matters. One or two of them accompanied the king in war. 



138 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 129 

with power to control his movements, and even to arrest him 
and put him to death. In practice, the Ephors acted as the serv- 
ants of the Senate, which indeed really controlled the nomina- 
tions and elections of these officersc 

To the Greeks, all delegation of power, even to officers elected for 
short terms, seemed undemocratic. They would not have called our 
government by President, Congress, and Supreme Court a democracy at 
all. Our government is sometimes called a " representative democracy." 
To the Greeks, democracy always meant " direct democracy," — a gov- 
ernment in which each freeman took somewhat the same part that a 
member of Congress does with us — a system such that each citizen 
voted, not occasionally, to elect representatives, but constantly, on all 
matters of importance, — which matters he might also discuss in the 
ruling Assembly of his city. Even one of our State governments with 
the " initiative " and " referendum " would have seemed to the Greek a 
very mild sort of ^' direct democracy." By his standard, Sparta was 
exceedingly aristocratic. 

129. Classes in Laconia. — Moreover, the Spartans as a whole 
were a ruling class in the midst of subjects eight or ten times their 
number. They were simply a camp of some nine thousand con- 
querors (with their families) living under arms in their unwalled 
city. They were wholly given to camp life. They had taken 
to themselves the most fertile lands in Laconia, but they did 
no work. Each man's land was tilled by certain slaves, or 
Helots. 

The Helots numbered four or five to one Spartan. They 
were slaves, not to individual Spartans, but to the government. 
Besides tilling the Spartan lands, they furnished light-armed 
troops in war; but they were a constant danger. A secret 
police of active Spartan youth busied itself in detecting plots 
among them, and sometimes carried out secret massacres of the 
more intelligent and ambitious slaves. 

Indeed it was lawful for any Spartan to kill a Helot with- 
out trial ; and sometimes crowds of Helots vanished mysteri- 
ously when their numbers threatened Spartan safety. On one 
occasion, in the great struggle with Athens in the fifth cen- 



§ 130] SPARTA'S HEADSHIP 139 

tury (§§ 192 ff.), the Spartans gave the Helots heavy armor, 
but afterward they become terrified at the possible conse- 
quences. Thucydides (the Greek historian of that period) 
tells how they met the danger : — 

" They proclaimed that a selection would be made of those Helots who 
claimed to have rendered the best service to the Spartans in the war, and 
promised them liberty. The announcement was intended to test them : 
it was thought that those among them who were foremost in asserting 
their freedom would be most high-spirited and most likely to rise against 
their masters. So [the Spartans] selected about two thousand, who were 
crowned with garlands, and went in procession round the temples. They 
[the Helots] were supposed to have received their liberty, hut not long 
afterwards the Spartans put them all out of the way, and no man knew 
how any of them came to their end.''"' 

The inhabitants of the hundred small subject towns of Laco- 
nia were free men, hut they were not part of the Spartan state. 
They kept their own customs and shared in the government of 
their cities, under the supervision of Spartan rulers. They 
tilled lands of their own, and they carried on such trades and 
commerce as existed in Laconia. 

These subject Laconians were three or four to one Spartan-, 
and they furnished, in large measure, the heavy-armed soldiers 
of the Spartan army. The Ephors could put them to death 
without trial, but they seem, as a rule, to have been well treated 
and well content. 

Thus the inhabitants of Laconia were of three classes : 
a small ruling body of warriors, living in one central settlement ; 
a large class of cruelly treated, rural serfs, to till the soil for these 
aristocratic soldiers ; another large class of well-treated subjects, 
— toicn-divellers, — tvho, however, had no share in the Spartan 
government. 

130. " Spartan Discipline." — Sparta kept its mastery in La- 
conia by sleepless vigilance and by a rigid discipline. That 
discipline is sometimes praised as "the Spartan training." 
Its sole aim was to make soldiers. It succeeded in this ; but 
it w^s harsh and brutal. 



140 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 130 

The family, as well as the man, belonged absolutely to the 
state. The Ephors examined each child, at its birth, to decide 
whether it was fit to live. If it seemed weak or puny, it was 
exposed in the mountains to die. The father and mother 
could not save it. If it was strong and healthy, it was re- 
turned to its parents for a few years. But after a boy reached 
the age of seven, he never again slept under his mother's roof: 
he was taken from home, to be trained with other boys under 
public officers, until he was twenty. 

The boys were taught reading and a little martial music, 
but they were given no other mental culture. The main pur- 
pose of their education was to harden and strengthen the body 
and to develop self-control and obedience. On certain festival 
days, boys were whipped at the altars to test their endurance ; 
and Plutarch (a Greek writer of the second century a.d.) states 
that they often died under the lash rather than utter a cry. 
This custom was much like the savage "sun-dance" of some 
American Indian tribes. Indeed, several features of Spartan 
life that are ascribed by legend to Lycurgus seem rather to 
have been survivals of a barbarous period that the Spartans 
never wholly outgrew. 

From twenty to thirty, the youth lived under arms in bar- 
racks. There he was one of a mess of fifteen. From his land 
he had to provide his part of the barley meal, cheese, and 
black broth, with meat on holidays, for the company's food. 
The mess drilled and fought side by side, so that in battle 
each man knew that his daily companions and friends stood 
about him. These many years of constant military drill made 
it easy for the Spartans to adopt more complex tactics than 
were possible for their neighbors. They were trained in small 
regiments and companies, so as to maneuver readily at the 
word of command. This made them superior in the field. 
They stood to the other Greeks as disciplined soldiery always 
stand to untrained militia. 

At thirty the man was required to marry, in order to rear 
more soldiers ; but he must still eat in barracks, and live there 



S 132] RISE OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 141 

most of the time. He had no real home. Said an Athenian, 
''The Spartan's life is so unendurable that it is no wonder he 
throws it away lightly in battle." 

There was certain virtue, no doubt, in this training. The 
Spartans had the quiet dignity of born rulers. In contrast with 
the noisy Greeks all about them, their speech was brief and 
pithy ("laconic" speech). They used only iron money. And 
their plain living made them appear superior to the weak in- 
dulgences of other men. After the introduction of Ephors, 
their form of government did not change for five hundred 
years; and this changeless character called forth admiration 
from the other Greeks, who were accustomed to kaleidoscopic 
revolutions. Spartan women, too, kept a freedom which un- 
happily was lost in other Greek cities. Girls were trained in 
gymnastics, much as boys were ; and the women were famous 
for beauty and health, and for public spirit and patriotism. 

131. The value of the Spartans to the world lay in the fact that they 
made a garrison for the rest of Greece, and helped save something better 
than themselves. In themselves, they were hard, ignorant, narrow. 
They did nothing for art, literature, science, or philosophy. If the Greeks 
had all been Spartans, we could afford to omit the study of Greek history. 

For Further Reading. — All students should read the charming 
account of Spartan customs contained in Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus. 
Davis' Beadings has several pages of extracts from the more valuable 
part. 

Exercise. — Name the three classes of people in Laconia. "Which one 
alone had full political rights ? What were the four parts of the govern- 
ment ? State the powers of each, 

V. BEGINNING OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 

132. Consolidation of Attica. — Athens was the only city in At- 
tica — a considerable territory. Like Sparta, Athens was the 
result of more consolidation than was common with Greek cities. 
In other districts as large as Attica or Laconia there were 
always groups of independent cities. Boeotia, for instance, 
contained twelve cities, jealous of one another; and Thebes, 



142 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 133 

' j / the largest among them, could at best hope for only a limited 
leadership over her rivals. 

In Attica, before history really began, the beginnings of several cities 
bad been consolidated in one (§ 103). Indeed, consolidation had been 
carried even farther than with Sparta. Athens was the home of all the 
free inhabitants of Attica, not merely the camp of one ruling tribe. 

133. Favorable Conditions. — Attica is one of the most easily 
defended districts of all Greece — against any force not abso- 
lutely overwhelming. It is a peninsula ; and on the two land 
sides, where it borders Megaris and Boeotia, it is reached only 
through fairly difficult passes. These facts explain, in part, 
why Attica was the one spot of southern Greece not overrun by 
conquerors at the time of the Dorian migration. Naturally, it 
became a refuge for Ionian clans driven from the Peloponnesus. 
The richest and strongesb of these were adopted into the tribes 
of Attica. Others became dependants. The frequent and 
peaceful introduction of new blood helped to make the people 
progressive and open to outside influence. 

134. Decline of the Homeric Kingship. — Like other Greek 
cities, Athens lost her kings in the dim centuries before we 
have any real history. The nobles began to restrict the royal 
power about 1000 b.c. The king's title had been kmg-archon. 
Alongside the king-archon the nobles first set up, from among 
themselves, a war-arclion (polemarch). Then they created a 
chief-archon, usually called the Archon, to act as judge and as 
chief executive of the government. After that, the king-archon 
was only the city-priest. In 752, the office was made elective, 
for ten-year terms. For some time longer the king-archon was 
always chosen from the old royal family ; but finally the office 
was thrown open to any noble. At last, in 682 b.c, the archons 
were all made annual officers, and the number was increased to 
nine, because of the growing judicial work. 

135. Rule by the Nobles. — The nobles were known as Eupa- 
trids (well-born). They were the chiefs of the numerous clans 
in Attica. Their council was called the Areopagus, from the 



g- 137] RISE OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 143 

name of the hill where it met. The Areopagus chose the 
archons (from nobles, of course), and ruled Attica. The other 
tribesmen had even less influence than in Homeric times. 
They no longer had a political Assembly. 

136. Economic ^ Oppression. — The nobles tyrannized over the 
common tribesmen in economic matters. Most of the land had 
come to belong to the nobles. They tilled it mainly by tenants, 
who paid Jive sixths of the produce for rent. A bad season or 
hostile ravages compelled these tenants to borrow seed or food, 
and to mortgage themselves for payment. If a debtor failed 
to pay promptly, he and his family could be dragged off in 
chains and sold into slavery. 

Besides the great landlords and their tenants, there was a 
class of small farmers' owning their own lands ; but often these 
men also were rbliged to borrow of the nobles. In conse- 
quence, many of them passed into the condition of tenants. 
Aristotle (a later Greek writer) says : — 

" The poor with their wives and children were the very bondsmen of the 
rich, who named them Sixth-men, because it was for this wage they tilled 
the land. The entire land was in the hands of a few. If the poor failed 
to pay their rents they were liable to be haled into slavery. . . . They 
were discontented also with every other feature of their lot, for, to speak 
generally, they had no share in anythitig.'''' — Constitution of Athens, 2. 

137. The first advance was to base political power in part upon 
wealth. The supremacy of the nobles had rested largely on 
their superiority in war. They composed the "knights," or 
heavy-armed cavalry of Attica. In comparison with this cav- 
alry, the early foot soldiery was only a light-armed mob. But, 
before 650, the Athenians adopted the Dorian plan of a heavy- 
armed infantry (" hoplites "), with shield, helmet, and long 
spear. The serried ranks of this infantry proved able to repel 
cavalry. The importance of the nobles in war declined, and 
there followed some decrease in their political power, 

1 "Economic" means "with reference to property," or " with reference to 
the way of getting a living." The word must not be confused with " eco- 
nomical." 



144 



HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. 



[§138 



Each man furnished his own arms for war. So, in order that 
each might know just what military service was required from 
him, all tribesmen were divided into four classes, according to 
their yearly income from land} The first and second classes 
(the richest ones) were obliged to serve as knights, or cavalry. 
Doubtless at first these were all nobles. The third class were 
to arm themselves as hoplites. The fourth class were called 
into the field less often, and only as light-armed troops. 

This " census " was designed 
only to regulate service in the 
army, but it became a basis for 
the distribution of political power. 
All the heavy-armed soldiery — 
the three higher classes — came to 
have the right to vote on ques- 
tions of peace and war, and in 
time they grew into a nevj politi- 
cal Assembly. This Assembly 
elected archons and other officers. 
REEK oLDiER. Thus poUticol Hghts ceased to be 

based wholly on birth, and became partly a matter of wealth. 

138. Civil Strife. — In general, however, the nobles seemed 
almost as safely intrenched under the new system by their 
wealth as they had been before by birth. Their rule continued 
selfish and incompetent; and nothing had been done to cure 
the sufferings of the poor. The people grew more and more 
bitter ; and, at length, ambitious adventurers began to try to 
overthrow the oligarchy and make themselves tyrants. One 
young conspirator, Cylon, with his forces, actually seized the 
Acropolis, the citadel of Athens. The nobles rallied, and 
Cylon was defeated ; but the ruling oligarchy had received a 
fright, and they now made a great concession (§ 139). 




1 500-measure men, 300-measure men, 200-measure men, and those whose 
income was less than 200 measures of wheat. (The Greek " measure " was a 
little more 'ihan half a bushel.) 



§ 140] RISE OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 145 

139. Draco : Written Laws. — Until 621 b.c, Athenian law 
had been a matter of ancient custom. It was not written down, 
and much of it was known only to the nobles. All judges, of 
course, were nobles ; and they abused their power in order to 
favor their own class. Therefore the Athenians clamored for a 
written code. They did not ask yet for new laws, but only 
that the old laws might be definitely fixed and known to all. 

The nobles had long resisted this demand. But in 621, 
after the attempt of Cylon, they consented that Draco, one of 
the archons, should draw up a written code. This was done ; 
and the " laws of Draco '' were engraved on wooden blocks and 
set up where all might see them. Draco did not make new 
laws: he merely put old customs into fixed written form. The 
result was to make men feel how harsh and unfit the old laws 
were, — " written in blood leather than iJiJc/' as was said in a later 
age. The Athenians now demanded new laws. 

140. Solon. — Just at this time Athens produced a rare man 
who was to render her great service. Solon was a descendant 
of the old kings. In his youth he had been a trader to other 
lands, even going as far as Egypt (§ 23). He was already 
famous as a poet, a general, and a philosopher ; and he was to 
show himself also a statesman. 

Solon's patriotism had been proven. At one time the internal quarrels 
had so weakened Athens that little Megara had captured Salamis. In 
control of this island, it was easy for Megara to seize ships trying to enter 
the Athenian ports. Efforts to recover this important place failed miser- 
ably ; and, in despair, the Athenians had voted to put to death any one 
who should again propose the attempt. Solon shammed madness, — to 
claim a crazy man's privilege, — and, appearing suddenly in the Assem- 
bly, recited a warlike, patriotic poem which roused his countrymen to 
fresh efforts. Solon was made general ; and he recovered Salamis and 
saved Athens from ruin. 

Now, in peril of civil war, the city turned naturally to Solon. 
He was known to sympathize with the poor. In his poems he 
had blamed the greed of the nobles and had pleaded for recon- 
ciliation between the classes. All trusted him, and the poor 
loved him. He was elected Archon, with special authority, to 



146 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 141 

make new laws and to remodel the government. This office 
he held for two years, 594 and 593 B. C. 

141. The "Shaking-off of Burdens." — The first year Solon 
swept away economic evils. Three measures righted past 
wrongs : — 

a. The old tenants were given full ownership of the lands 
which they had formerly cultivated for the nobles.^ 

b. All debts were canceled so as to give a new start. 

c. All Athenians in slavery in Attica were freed. 
Two measures aimed to prevent a return of old evils : — 

d. It was made illegal to reduce Athenians to slavery. 

e. To own more than a certain quantity of land was for- 
bidden. 

In later times the whole people celebrated these acts of Solon 
each year by a " Festival of the Shaking-off of Burdens.'^ 

142. Political Reform. — These economic changes resulted in 
political change, since political power was already based upon 
landed property. Up to the time of Solon, the nobles had 
owned most of the land. But now much of it had been given 
to the poor, and henceforth it was easy for any rich man to buy 
land. Many merchants now rose into the first class, while 
many nobles sank into other classes. Soon, the Eupatrid name 
disappeared. 

Moreover, in the second year of his Archonship, Solon intro- 
duced direct political changes which went far toward making 
Athens a democracy. 

a. A Senate was created, to prepare measures for tli3 Assem* 
bly to act upon. The members were chosen each year by lot,"^ so 
that neither wealth nor birth could control the election. This 
new part of the government became the guiding part. 

b. TJie Assembly (§ 137) was enlarged both as to size and 

1 In one of his poems, Solon speaks of " freeing the enslaved land," by re- 
moving the stone pillars which had marked the nobles' ownership. 

2 The lot in elections was regarded as an appeal to the gods, and its use was 
accompanied by religious sacriices and by prayer. The early Puritans in New 
England sometimes used the lot in a similar way. 



§ 145] RISE OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 147 

power. The "fourth class" (light-armed soldiery) were ad 
mitted to vote in it — though they were not allowed to hold 
ofB.ce of any kind. This enlarged Assembly of all Athenian 
tribesmen discussed the proposals of the Senate and decided 
upon them ; elected the archons ; and could try them for misgov- 
ernment at the end of their year of office. 

c. The Areopagus was no longer a council of nobles only. It was 
composed of ex-archons. Thus, it was elected, indirectly, by the Assembly. 
It had lost most of its powers to the Senate and Assembly ; but it re- 
mained a court to try murder cases, and to exercise a supervision over 
the morals of the citizens, with power to impose fines for extravagance, 
insolence, or gluttony. 

143. Additional Measures. — Solon also replaced Draco's 
bloody laws with a milder code ; introduced a coinage (§ 70) ; 
made it the duty of each father to teach his son a trade; 
limited the wealth that might be buried with the dead; and 
restricted women from appearing in public. 

144. The sixth century b.c. was one of great progress in Athens. 
In 682 B.C., a few noble families still owned most of the 

soil, possessed all political power, and held the rest of the peo- 
ple in virtual slavery. 

In 593 B.C., when Solon laid down his office, nearly all 
Athenian tribesmen were landowners. All were members of 
the political Assembly, which decided public questions. 

Some elements of aristocracy were left. To hold of6.ce, a man had to pos- 
sess enough wealth to belong to one of the three higher classes, and some 
offices were open only to the wealthiest class. But if this Athenian prog- 
reSvS seems slow to us, we must remember that in nearly all the Ameri- 
can states, for some time after the Revolutionary War, important offices 
and the right to vote were open only to men with property. 

145. Anarchy Renewed. — The reforms of Solon did not end 
the fierce strife of factions. Bitter feuds followed between the 
Plain (wealthy landowners), the Shore (merchants), and the 
Mountain (shepherds and small farmers). Twice within ten 
years, disorder prevented the election of archons. 



148 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 146 

146. Pisistratus, 560-527. — From such anarchy the city was 
saved by Pisistratus. In 560 b.c.^ this noble made himself 
tyrant, by help of the Mountain (the most democratic fac- 
tion). Twice the aristocracy drove him into exile, once for 
ten years. But each time he recovered his power, almost 
without bloodshed, because of the favor of the poorer people. 

His rule was mild and wise. He lived simply, like other 
citizens. He even appeared in a law court, to answer in a suit 
against him. And he always treated the aged Solon (his kins- 
man) with deep respect, despite the latter's bitter opposition. 
Indeed, Pisistratus governed through the forms of Solon^s constitu- 
tion,^ and enforced Solon's laws, taking care oyily to have his own 
friends elected to the chief offices. He was more like the "boss" 
of a great political " machine " than like a " tyrant.'' During 
the last period of his rule, however, he did banish many nobles 
and guarded himself by mercenary soldiers. 

Pisistratus encouraged commerce; enlarged and beautified 
Athens ; built roads, and an aqueduct to bring a supply of water 
to the city from the hills ; and drew to his court a brilliant circle 
of poets, painters, architects, and sculptors, from all Hellas. 
The first written edition of the Homeric poems is said to have 
been put together under his encouragement. During this same 
time, Anacreon (§ 155) wrote his graceful odes at Athens, and 
Thespis (§ 155) began Greek tragedy at the magnificent festivals 
there instituted to Dionysus (god of wine). The tyrant gave 
new splendor to the public worship, and set up rural festivals 
in various parts of Attica, to make country life more attractive. 
He divided the confiscated estates of banished nobles among 
landless freemen, and thus increased the number of peasant 
landholders. Attica was no longer torn by dissension. 

" Not only was he in every respect humane and mild and ready to for- 
give those who offended, but in addition he advanced money to the poorer 
people to help them in their labors. 

* Two years before Cyrus became king of Persia. 

2 Constitution, here and everywhere in early history, taeans not a written 
document as with us, but the general usages of government in practice. 



§ 148] RISE OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 149 

" For the same reason [to make rural life attractive] he instituted 
local justices, and often made expeditions in person into the country 
to inspect it, and to settle disputes between persons, that they might not 
•come to the city and neglect their farms. It was in one of these prog- 
resses, as the story goes, that Pisistratus had his adventure with the 
man in the district of Hymettus, who was cultivating the spot afterwards 
known as the 'Tax-free Farm.' He saw a man digging at very stony 
ground with a stake, and sent and asked what he got out of such a plot 
of land. 'Aches and pains,' said the man, ' and out of these Pisistratus 
must get his tenth.' Pisistratus was so pleased with the man's frank 
speech and industry that he granted him exemption from taxes." — 
Aristotle, Constitution of Athens^ 17. 

147. Expulsion of the Son of Pisistratus, 510 B.C. — In 527, 

Pisistratus was succeeded by his sons Hippias and Hipparchus. 
Hipparchus, the younger brother, lived an evil life, and in 514 
he was murdered because of a private grudge.^ The rule of 
Hippias had been kindly, but now he grew cruel and suspicious, 
and Athens became ready for revolt. 

CUsthenes, one of a band of exiled nobles, saw his opportunity 
to regain his home. The temple of Apollo at Delphi had just 
been burned, and CUsthenes engaged to rebuild it. He did so 
with great magnificence, using the finest of marble where the 
contract had called only for common limestone. After this, 
whenever the Spartans consulted the oracle, no matter what the 
occasion, they were always ordered by the priestess to "Jirst set 
free the Athenians.'^ The Spartans had no quarrel with Hippias ; 
but repeated commands from such a source could not be disre- 
garded. In 510, a reluctant Spartan army, with the Athenian 
exiles, expelled the tyrant. 

148. Vigor of Free Athens. — The Athenians were now in 
confusion again; but they were stronger than before the rule 
of Pisistratus, and better able to govern themselves. The 
oligarchy strove to regain its ancient control ; but CUsthenes 
wisely threw his strength upon the side of the people, and 
drove out the oligarchs. The Thebans and Euboeans seized 

1 Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 53, gives the patriotic song of Athens that 
commemorated this event. 



150 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 149 

this time of confusion to invade Attica from two sides at once ; 
but they were routed by a double engagement in one day. A 
Spartan army restored the oligarchs for a moment, but was 
itself soon besieged in the Acropolis and captured by the 
aroused democracy. 

A century later an Athenian dramatist (Aristophanes, § 221) portrayed 
the Athenian exultation (and hinted some differences between Athenian 
and Spartan life) in the following lines : — 

..." For all his loud fire-eating, 
The old Spartan got a beating, 
And, in sorry plight retreating, 

Left his spear and shield with me. 
Then, with only his poor shirt on, 
And who knows what years of dirt on, 
With a bristling bush of beard, 

He slunk away and left us free." 

The Athenians had enjoyed little fame in war, "but now," 
says Aristotle, " they showed that men will fight more bravely 
for themselves than for a master." Indeed, they were not 
content simply to defend themselves. Chalcis in Euboea was 
stormed, and its trade with Thrace (§ 122) fell to Athens. 

Athens now began a new kind of colonization, sending four 
thousand citizens to possess the best land of Chalcis, and to 
serve as a garrison there. These men retained full Athenian 
citizenship. They were known as cleruchs, or out-settlers. In 
this way Athens found land for her surplus population, and 
fortified her influence abroad. 

During these struggles, Clisthenes proposed further reforms in the 
government. The people adopted his proposals, and so made Athens a true 
democracy. (See §§ 149-152.) 

149. There were four main evils for Clisthenes to remedy. 

a. The constitution of Solon, though a great advance toward 
democracy, had left the government still largely in the hands of 
the rich. The poorest " class " (which contained at least half of 



§ 151] RISE OF DEMOCRACY AT ATHENS 151 

all the citizens) could not hold office ; and the Assembly had 
not learned how to use its new powers. 

h. The jealousy between the Plain, the Shore, and the 
Mountain (§ 145) still caused great confusion. 

c. All voting was by clans ; and there was strong temptation 
for each clan merely to rally around its own chief. 

d. There was a bitter jealousy between the Athenian tribes- 
men (the citizens) and a large body of non-citizens. The 
presence of these calls for a. further explanation. 

150. The Non-citizen Class. — Solon's reforms had concerned 
tribesmen only. But in the ninety years between Solon and 
Clisthenes, the growing trade of Athens had draion many aliens 
there. These men were enterprising and sometimes wealthy; 
but though they lived in the city, they had no share in it. No 
alien could vote or hold office, or cue in a law court (except 
through the favor of some citizen), or take part in a religious 
festival, or marry an Athenian, or even own land in Attica. 
The city might find it worth while to protect his property, in 
order to attract other strangers; but he had no secure rights. 
Nor could his son, or his son^s son, or any later descendant 
acquire any rights merely by continuing to live in Athens. 

A like condition was found in other Greek cities; but rarely were the 
aliens so large or so wealthy a class as in commercial Athens. Discontent 
might at any moment make them a danger. Clisthenes' plan was to take 
them into the state, and so make them strengthen it. 

151. Geographical Tribes. — Clisthenes began his work by 
marking off Attica into a hundred divisions, called demes. Each 
citizen was enrolled in one of these, and his son after him. 
Membership in a clan had always been the proof of citizenship. 
Now that proof was to be found in this deme-enrollment. 

The hundred demes were distributed among ten " tribes," or 
wards ; but the ten demes of each tribe were not located close 
together. TJiey were scattered as widely as possible, so as to in- 
clude different interests. Voting in the Assembly was no longer 
by the old blood tribes, but by these ten new "territorial'' 



152 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 152 

tribes. By this one device, Clisthenes remedied three of the 
four great evils of the time (b, c, d, in § 149). 

(1) A clan could no longer act as a unit, since its members 
made parts, perhaps, of several "tribes." So the influence of 
the clan chiefs declined. (2) Men of the Shore and of the 
Mountain often found themselves united in the same tribe, and 
the old factions died out. (3) While Clisthenes was distribut- 
ing citizens among the new geographical units, he seized the 
chance to enroll the non-citizens also in the denies. Thus, fresh, 
progressive influences were again adopted into Athenian life. 

It must not be supposed, however, that aliens continued to gain ad- 
mission in the future, as with us, by easy naturalization. The act of 
Clisthenes applied only to those then in Athens, and to their descendants. In 
a few years another alien class grew up, with all the old disadvantages. 

152. The Assembly kept its old powers, and gained new ones. 
It began to deal with foreign affairs, taxation, and the details 
of campaigns. It no longer confined itself to proposals from 
the " Council of Five Hundred " (the new name for the Senate). 
Any citizen could move amendments or introduce new business. 
The Assembly now elected ten "generals^' yearly, who took 
over most of the old authority of the archons. 

These new arrangements corrected much of the first evil 
noted in § 149. TJie "fowth class " of citizens was stilt not 
eligible to office. Otherwise, Athens had become a democracy. 
To be sure, it took some time for the Assembly to realize its 
full power and to learn how to control its various agents ; but 
its rise to supreme authority was now only a matter of natural 
growth. 

Solon and Clisthenes were the two men who stood foremost in the 
great work of putting government into the hands of the people. The 
struggle in which they were champions is essentially the same contest 
that is going on to-day. The student will have little difficulty in select- 
ing names, in America and in European countries, to put in the list which 
should be headed with the names of these two Athenians. 



§ 154] ART, POETRY, PHILOSOPHY 153 

153. Ostracism. — One peculiar device of Clisthenes deserves mention. 
It was called ostracism, and it was designed to head off civil strife. Once 
a year the Assembly was given a chance to vote by ballot (on pieces of 
pottery, "ostraka"), each one against any man whom he deemed dan- 
gerous to the state. If six thousand citizens thought that some one ought 
to go into exile for the safety of the state, then that man had to go against 
whom the largest number of the six thousand votes were cast. Such exile 
was felt to be perfectly honorable ; and when a man came back from it, he 
took at once his old place in the public regard. 

Exercise: Questions on the Government. — For the Eupatrid gov- 
ernment. — 1. What represented the monarchic element of Homer's 
time ? 2. What the aristocratic ? 3. What the democratic ? 4. Which 
element had made a decided gain in power ? 6. Which had lost most ? 
6. Which of the three was least important ? 7. Which most important ? 

For the government after Solon. — 1. What was the basis of citizenship ? 

2. What was the basis for distribution of power among the citizens? 

3. Was the introduction of the Senate a gain for the aristocratic or demo- 
cratic element ? 4. What powers did the Assembly gain ? 5. Which 
two of these powers enabled the Assembly to control the administration ? 

Students should be able to answer similar questions on the government 
after Clisthenes' reforms. It would be a good exercise for the class to 
make out questions themselves. 

VI. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT 

154. Architecture, painting, and sculpture had not reached 
full bloom in the sixth century, but they had begun to show a 
character distinct from Oriental art. Their chief centers in 
this period were Miletus and Ephesus (in Ionia) and Athens. 
Architecture was more advanced than painting or sculpture. 
It found its best development, not in palaces, as in the old 
Cretan civilization, but in the temples of the gods. In every 
Greek city, the temples were the most beautiful and the most 
prominent structures. 

The plan of the Greek temple was very simple. People did 
nob gather within the building for service, as in our churches. 
They only brought offerings there. The inclosed part of the 
building, therefore, was small and rather dark, — containing 
only one or two rooms, for the statues of the god and the altai 



154 



HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. 



[§154 



and the safe-keeping of the offerings. It was merely the god's 
house, where people could visit him when they wished to ask 
favors. 

In shape, the temple was rectangular. The roof projected 
beyond the inclosed part of the building, and was supported 
not by the walls, but by a row of columns running around the 
four sides. The gables {pediments) in front and rear were low, 
and were filled with statuary, as was also the frieze, between 
the cornice and the columns. Sometimes there was a second 
frieze upon the walls of the building inside the colonnade. 



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Ground Plan of the Temple of Theseus at Athens. 



The building took much of its beauty from its colonnades ; 
and the chief differences in the styles of architecture were marked 
by the columns and their capitals. According to differences in 
these features, a building is said to belong to the Doric, Ionic, 
or Corinthian "order." 

In the Doric order the column has no base of its own, but rests 
directly upon the foundation from which the walls rise. The 
shaft is grooved lengthwise with some twenty flutings. The 
capital is severely simple, consisting of a circular band of stone, 
swelling up from the shaft, capped by a square block, without 
ornament. Upon the capitals rests a plain band of massive 
stones {the architrave), and above this is the frieze, which sup- 
ports the roof. The frieze is divided at equal spaces by trir 



§155] 



ART, POETRY, PHILOSOPHY 



155 




Ionic Order. 



alvphs, a series of three projecting flutings; and 
Sspaces between the triglyphs are filled w.th 

" ThrPoric style is the simplest of the three 
orders. It is ahnost austere in its plainness, g.v- 
ing a sense of self-controlled 
power and repose. Some- 
times it is called a mascwZwe 
style, in contrast with the 
more ornate and feminine 
character of the Ionic order. 
Tlie Ionic order came into 
general use later. In this 
style, the column has a base 
arranged in three expanding 
circles. The shaft is more 
sZender than the Doric. The 
swelling bell of the capital 
is often nobly carved, and it 
is surmounted by tico spiral 
rolls. The frieze has no tri- 
glyphs: the sculpture upon 
it is one continuous band. 




Doric Column. — From 
the Temple of Theseus 
at Athens. 
1, the shaft; 2, the capital ; 

3, 'the frieze; 4, cornice; 

5' part of roof, showing the 

low slope. 



Corinthian 
Order. 



The Corinthian order is a later 
development and does not belong 
to the period we are now consid- 
ering It resembles the Ionian ; 
but the capital is taller, lacks 
the spirals, and is more highly 
ornamented, with forms of leaves 

Is^ecSly page 212. For the Corinthian, see page 476. 

1 15 Poetry. -In poetry there was more prog- 

Lrthalin arcliHecture. The earlies. Greek 

;::t:rhad beL made up of — . celebraU.g 



156 



HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. 



[§155 



wars and heroes. These ballads were stories in verse, sung by 
wandering minstrels. The greatest of such compositions rose 
to epic poetry, of which the Iliad and Odyssey are the noblest 
examples. Their period is called the Epic Age. 

In the seventh and sixth centuries, most poetry consisted of 
odes and songs in a great variety of meters, — corresponding to 

the more varied life 

of the time. Love and 
pleasure are the favor- 
ite themes, and the 
poems describe feel- 
ings rather than out- 
ward events. They 
were intended to be 
sung to the accom- 
paniment of the lyre 
(a sort of harp). They 
are therefore called 
lyrics ; and the sev- 
enth and sixth cen- 
turies are known as 
the Lyric Age. 

It is possible to 
name here only a few 
of the many famous 
lyric poets of that 
age. SappJio, of Lesbos, wrote exquisite and melodious love 
songs, of which a few fragments survive. Her lover Alcaeus 
(another Lesbian poet) described her as "Pure Sappho, violet 
tressed, softly smiling." The ancients were wont to call her 
"the poetess," just as they referred to Homer as "the poet." 
Simonides wrote odes to arouse Hellenic patriotism ; Anacreon 
has been spoken of in connection with the brilliant court of 
Pisistratus. Tyrtaeus, an Attic war-poet, wrote chiefly for the 
Spartans, and became one of their generals. Corinna was a 
woman poet of Boeotia. Pindar, the greatest of the lyric poets, 




A Doric Capital. — From a photograph ot a de- 
tail of the Parthenon. See § 219 for the date 
and history. 



§ 156] ART, POETRY, PHILOSOPHY 157 

came from the same district. He delighted especially to cele- 
brate the rushing chariots and glorious athletes of the Olympic 
games. 

Two other great poets, representing another kind of poetry, 
belong to this same period. Hesiod of Boeotia lived about 
800 B.C. He wove together into a long poem old stories of 
the creation and of the birth and relationship of the gods. 
This Theogony of Hesiod was the most important single work 
in early Greek literature, after the Homeric poems. Hesiod 
wrote also remarkable home-like poems on farm life {Works 
and Days).^ The other writer was TJiespis, who began dramatic 
poetry (plays) at Athens, under the patronage of Pisistratus. 

156. Philosophy. — In the 8ixth century, too, Greek phi- 
losophy was born. Its home was in Ionia. There first the 
Greek mind set out fearlessly to explain the origin of things. 
TJiales of Miletus, " father of Greek philosophy," taught that 
all things came from Water, or moisture. His pupil Anax- 
imenes called Air, not Water, the universal ^' first principle." 
Pythagoras (born at Samos, but teaching in Magna Graecia) 
sought the fundamental principle, not in any kind of matter, 
but in Number, or Harmony. Xenophanes of Ionia, affirmed 
that the only real existence was that of God, one and change- 
less — "not in body like unto mortals, nor in mind." The 
changing world, he said, did not really exist : it was only a 
deception of men's senses. Heracleitus of Ephesus, on the 
other hand, held that " ceaseless change " was the very prin- 
ciple of things : the world, he taught, had evolved from a fiery 
ether, and was in constant flux. 

Some of these explanations of the universe seem childish to 
us. But the great thing is that, at last, men should have begun 
to seek for any natural explanation — instead of putting 
forward some sz^^ernatural explanation. Accordingly, this 
early philosophy was closely related to early science. Thales 

1 This was really a textbook on farming, — the first textbook in Europe. 
Hesiod wrote it in verse, because prose writing in his day was unknown. The 
earliest composition of any people is usually in meter. 



158 



HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. 



(§157 



was the first Greek to foretell eclipses. (He could predict the 
period, but not the precise day or hour.) Those who laughed 
at philosophers, liked to tell of him that, while gazing at the 
heavens, he fell into a well. He may have obtained his knowl- 
edge of astronomy from Egypt, vt^hich country we know he 
visited (§ 32). Anaximander, another philosopher of MiletuSj , 




West Front of the Parthenon to-day. Doric style. 

made maps and globes. The Pythagoreans naturally paid 
special attention to mathematics and especially to geometry; 
and to Pythagoras is ascribed the famous demonstration about 
the square on the hypotenuse of a right triangle. 

The Pythagoreans connected " philosophy " particularly with 
conduct Ths harmony in the outer world, they held, must 
be matched by a harmony in the soul of man. Indeed, all these 
sages taught lofty moral truths. (See Davis' Readings^ Vol. I, 
Ko. 98.) Greek philosophy lifted itself far above the moral 
level of Greek religion. 

157. Summary of the Five Centuries. — During the five cen- 
turies from 1000 to 500 b.c, the Hellenes had come to think 
of themselves as one people (though not as one nation), and 



157] 



ART, POETRY, PHILOSOPHY 



159 



had developed a brilliant, jostling society. During more than 
half the period they had been busy sowing Hellenic cities 
broadcast along even the distant Mediterranean shores. They 
had found a capable military leadership in Sparta. They had 
everywhere rid themselves of the old monarchic rule, by a 




West Front of Temple of Victory at Athens.- 
Ionic style. See § 218. 



From the ruins to-day. 



long series of changes ; and, in Athens in particular, they had 
gone far toward creating a true democracy. Toward the close 
of the period, they had experienced an artistic and intellectual 
development wJiich made their civilization nobler and more 
promising than any the world had yet seen. Moreover, this civili- 
zation was essentially one with our oivn. The remains of Egyptian 
or Babylonian sculpture and architecture arouse our admiration 
and interest as curiosities ; but they are foreign to us. With 
the remains of a Greek temple, or a fragment of a Greek poem, 
of the year 500, we feel at home. It might have been built, or 
written, by our own people. 



160 



HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. 



[§158 



158. The following table of dates shows the correspondence in time 
of leading events in the Oriental and the Greek world down to the period 
when the two worlds come into close relations. Down to about 800, dates 
are mostly estimates (§ 31). This table is not given to he memorized^ but 
merely to be read and referred to. 



Hellas 



B.C. 



3500 Rising Aegean "New Stone " 
culture 



2500 Bronze culture in Crete and 
other Aegean centers 

2500 or 2400 Destruction of Schlie- 
mann's " Troy " (the " Sec- 
ond City ") 



2000 (?) " Minos of Crete " 



1600 Phoenicians in the Aegean 
1500-1200 Achaean conquests 
1500 Destruction of Knossos 



1300 Destruction of Mycenae 
1200 Destruction of Homer's 

"Troy" (the "Sixth 

City") 
1100 Homeric Poems 



The East 

B.C. 

5000 Records of advanced Bronze 
cultures in valleys of Nile 
and Euphrates 

3400-2400 "Old Kingdom" in 
Egypt, centered at Mem- 
phis ; Menes ; Cheops ; 
pyramids 

2800 Sargon : empire from Eu- 
phrates to Mediterranean 

2400-2000 "Middle Kingdom" in 
Egypt, centered at Thebes : 
Lake Moeris ; Red Sea 
canal ; commerce with Crete 

2234 Beginning of recorded astro- 
nomical observations at 
Babylon (§ 49) 

2000 Abraham emigrates from Ur 

2000-1600 Egyptian Decline : Hyk- 
sos ; Hebrews enter Egypt 

1917 (?) Hammurabi: " First Bab- 
ylonian " Empire ; volumi- 
nous cuneiform literature 

1600-1330 "New Empire" in 
Egypt 

1475 Egyptian brief conquest of the 
East : first union of the 
Oriental world 

1320 Hebrew exodus 



1100 Beginnings of Assyrian Em- 
pire — Tiglath-Pileser I 



158] 



HELLAS AND THE EAST 



161 



Hellas (continued) 

1000 Dorian conquests 
900 Rise of Sparta 
900-800 Ionian colonization 
800-650 Greek colonization 

Mediterranean coasts 
776 First recorded Olympiad 

700-500 " Age of Tyrants" 



of 



650-500 "Lyric Age" 



594-593 Solon's reforms 
560-527 Pisistratus 
610 Expulsion of Tyrants from 
Athens 



The East (continued) 

1055-975 David and Solomon 
1000 (?) Zoroaster 

850 (?) Carthage founded 



722 



672 



745 True Assyrian Empire — Tig- 
lath-Pileser II 
Sargon carries the Ten Tribes 

of Israel into captivity 
Assyria conquers Egypt : sec- 
ond union of Oriental world 

653-525 Last period of Egyptian 
independence — open to 
Greeks ; visits by Solon and 
Thales ; circumnavigation 
of Africa 

650 (?) First coinage, in Lydia 

630 Scythian ravages 

625-538 Second Babylonian Em- 
pire : Babylonian captivity 
of the Jews 

556 Croesus, king in Lydia 

558-529 Cyrus the Great founds 
Persian Empire — third un- 
ion of the Oriental World 



500 Ionian Revolt (§§164, 165) 
{Eastern and Western civilizations in conflict') 



For Further Reading. — Specially suggested: (1) Davis' Bead- 
ings, Vol. I, Nos. 40-56. These very nearly fit in with the order ot 
treatment in this book, and several numbers have been referred to in 
footnotes. It is desirable for students each day to consult the Head- 
ings, to see v/hether tbsy can find there more light on the lesson in this 
book. 

(2) Bury (on colonization), 86-106, 116-117; (on Sparta'), 120-134; 
(on ^^ Lycurgus^^), 134-135; (on certain tyrants), 149-156; (oracles 
and festivals), 169-161 ; (work of Solon), 180-189. 



162 HELLAS FROM 1000 TO 500 B.C. [§ 158 

Exercise. — Distinguish between Sparta and Laconia. How did the 
relation of Thebes to Boeotia differ from that of Sparta to Laconia? 
Which of these two relations was most like that of Athens to Attica f 
Have you any buildings in your city in which Greek columns are used ? 
Of which order, in each case ? (Take several leading buildings in a large 
town.) Explain the following terms : constitution ; Helot ; Eupatrid ; 
tyrant ; Lycurgus ; Clisthenes ; Areopagus ; archon ; deme ; clan ; tribe ; 
a " tribe of Clisthenes." 

(To explain a term, in such an exercise, is to make such statements 
concerning it as will at least prevent the term being confused with any 
other. Thus if the term is Solon, it will not do to say, "A Greek law- 
giver," or " A lawgiver of the sixth century b.c." The answer must at 
least say, " An Athenian lawgiver of about 600 b.c." ; and it ought to say, 
"An Athenian lawgiver and democratic reformer of about 600 b.c." 
Either of the first two answers is worth zero.) 



CHAPTER XII 

THE PERSIAN WARS 

We have now reached a point where the details of Greek 
history are better known, and where a more connected story is 
possible. This story begins with the Pers/an Wars. 

THE TWO ANTAGONISTS 

159. Persia. — In §§ 69-77, we saw how — within a time 
no longer than an average human life — Persia had stretched 
its rule over the territory of all former Oriental empires, 
besides adding vast regions before unknown. By 500 b.c. 
(the period to which we have just carried Greek history), 
Persia reached into the peninsula of Hindoostan in Asia, 
andj across Thrace, up to the Greek peninsula in Europe 
(map, after page 84). On this western frontier lay the scat- 
tered groups of Greek cities, bustling and energetic, but small 
and disunited. The mighty world-empire now advanced con- 
fidently to add these little communities to its dominions. 

Persia, in many ways, was the noblest of the Asiatic empires ; but 
its civilization was distinctly Oriental (with the general character that 
has been noted in §§ 8o ff.). The Greek cities, between looo and 500 B.C., 
had created a wholly different sort of culture, which we call European, 
or Western (§§ 82, 86). East and West now joined battle. The Persian 
attack upon Greece began a contest between two worlds, which has gone 
on, at times, ever since, — with the present " Eastern Question " and our 
Philippine question for latest chapters. 

160. Three sections of Hellas were prominent in power and 
culture : the European peninsula, which we commonly call 
Greece; Asiatic Hellas, with its coast islands; and Sicily and 
Magna Graecia (§ 122). Elsewhere, the cities were too scat- 
tered, or too small, or too busy with their own defense against 

163 



164 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§161 

surrounding savages, to count for much in the approaching 
contest. Asiatic Hellas fell easily to Persia before the real 
struggle began. Then the two other sections were attacked 
simultaneously, Greece by Persia, Sicily by Carthage. 

Carthage was a Phoenician colony on the north coast of 
Africa (see map after page 132). It had built up a consider- 
able empire in the western Mediterranean ; and, in Sicily, it 
had already, from time to time, come into conflict with Greek 
colonies. Sicily was an important point from which to control 
Mediterranean trade. Carthage now made a determined at- 
tempt to drive out her rivals there. 

The Greeks believed that the Persian king urged Carthage 
to take this time for attack, so that Magna Graecia and Sicily 
might not be able to join the other Greeks in resisting the 
main attack from Persia. At all events, such was the result. 
The Greek cities in Sicily and Italy were ruled by tyrants. 
These rulers united under Gelon of Syracuse, and repelled 
the Carthaginian onset. But the struggle kept the Western 
Greeks from helping their kinsmen against the Persians. 

161. Conditions in Greece itself at this critical moment were 
unpromising. The forces that could be mustered against the 
master of the world were small at best; but just now they 
were further divided and wasted in internal struggles. Athens 
was at war with Aegina and with Thebes ; Sparta had re- 
newed an ancient strife with Argos (§ 96), and had crippled 
her for a generation by slaying in one battle almost the whole 
body of adult Argives.^ Phocis was engaged in war with 
Thessalians on one side and Boeotians on the other. Worse 
than all this, many cities were torn by cruel class strife at 

1 The old men and boys, however, were still able to defend Argos itself 
against Spartan attack. This touches an important fact in Greek war- 
fare: a walled city could hardly be taken by assault; it could fall only- 
through extreme carelessness, or by treachery, or starvation. The last 
danger did not often exist. The armies of the besiegers were made up of 
citizens, not of paid troops; and they could not keep the field long themselves. 
They were needed at home, and it was not easy for them to secure food for a 
long siege. 



162] 



THE ANTAGONISTS 



165 



home, — oligarchs against democrats. One favorable condition, 
however, calls for attention (§ 162). 

162. The Peloponnesian League. — In a sense, Sparta was the 
head of Greece. She lacked the enterprise and daring that 
were to make Athens the city of the coming century ; but her 
government was 
firm, her army was 
large and disci- 
plined, and so far 
she had shown 
more genius than 
any other Greek 
state in organizing 
her neighbors into 
a military league. 
T^o fifths of the 
Peloponnesus she 
ruled directly (La- 
conia and Mes- 
senia), and the 
rest (except Argo- 
lis and Achaea) formed a confederacy for war, with Sparta as 
the head. 

It is true the union was very slight. On special occasions, 
at the call of Sparta, the states sent delegates to a conference 
to discuss peace or war ; but there was no constitution, no 
common treasury, not even a general treaty to bind the states 
together. Indeed, one city of the league sometimes made war 
upon another. Each state was bound to Sparta by its special 
treaty ; and, if Sparta was attacked by an enemy, each city of 
the " league " was expected to maintain a certain number of 
troops for the confederate army. Loose as this Peloponnesian 
league was, it was the greatest war power in Hellas ; and it 
seemed the one rallying point for disunited Greece in the coming 
struggle (§ 130, close). Except for the presence of this war 
power, few other Greeks would have dared to resist Persia at all. 




o 

states dependent 
upon Sparta. 

States in alliance 
with Sparta. 



THE PELOPONNESIAN LEAGUE 
(500 B.C.) 



166 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§163 

OPENING OF THE STRUlrGLE IN IONIA 

163. Conquest of the Ionian Greeks. — For two centuries before 
500 B.C., the Asiatic Hellenes excelled all other branches of 
the Greek race in culture. Unfortunately for them, the em- 
pire of Lydia arose near them. That great state was un- 
willing to be shut off from the Aegean by the Greek cities, 
and it set out to conquer themo For some time, the little Greek 
states kept their independence ; but when the energetic Croesus 
(§ 70) became king of Lydia, he subdued all the cities on the 
coast of Asia Minor. Croesus, however, was a warm admirer 
of the Greeks, and his rule over them was gentle. They were 
expected to acknowledge him as their over-lord and to pay. a 
small tribute in money ; but they were left to manage their own 
affairs at home, and were favored in many ways. 

When Cyrus the Persian attacked Croesus (§ 72), the 
Asiatic Greeks fought gallantly for Lydia. After the over- 
throw of Croesus, they tried to come to terms with Cyrus. 
Cyrus was angry because they had refused his invitations 
to join him in the war, and he would make them no promises. 
Fearing severe punishment, they made a brief struggle for 
independence. They applied, in vain, to Sparta for aid. Then 
Thales (§ 156) suggested a federation of all Ionia, with one gov- 
ernment and one army ; but the Greeks could not rise to so wise 
a plan (cf. § 104). So the Ionian cities fell, one by one, before 
the arms of Cyrus; and under Persian despotism their old 
leadership in civilization soon vanished. 

164. The "Ionian Revolt,'' 500 B.C. — The Persian conquest 
took place about 540 b.c. Before that time the lonians had 
begun to get rid of tyrants. But the Persians set up a tyrant 
again in each city, as the easiest means of control. (This 
shows something of what would have happened in Greece itself, 
if Persia had won in the approaching war.) Each tyrant knew 
that he could keep his power only by Persian support. 

In the year 500, by a general rising, the lonians deposed 
their tyrants once more, formed an alliance with one another, 



§ 165] THE FIRST ATTACK 167 

and broke into revolt against Persia. Another appeal to 
Sparta^ for help proved fruitless; but Athens sent twenty 
ships, and little Eretria sent five. " These ships," says Herod- 
otus, " were the beginnings of woes, both to the Greeks and to 
the barbarians.'' 

At first the lonians and their allies were successful. They 
even took Sardis, the old capital of Lydia, far in the interior. 
But treachery and mutual suspicion were rampant; Persian 
gold was used skillfully ; and one defeat broke up the loose 
Ionian league. Then the cities were again subdued, one by 
one, in the five years following. 

FIRST TWO ATTACKS UPON THE EUROPEAN GREEKS 

(492-490 B.C.) 

165. "What was the relation of the Ionian Revolt to the Persian 
invasion of Greece? According to legend, the Persian king 
attacked Greece to punish Athens for sending aid to the 
Ionian rebels. Herodotus says that Darius (§ 76) was so 
angered by the sack of Sardis that, during the rest of his 
life, he had a herald cry out to him thrice each day at dinner, 
— "0 King, remember the Athenians ! " This story has the 
appearance of a later invention, to flatter Athenian vanity. 
Probably Athens was pointed out for special vengeance, by her 
aid to Ionia ; but the Persian invasion would have come^ anyway^, 
and it would have come some years sooner, had not the war in 
Ionia kept the Persians busy. 

The expanding frontier of the Persian empire had reached 

1 The story of the appeal to Sparta is told pleasantly by Herodotus (ex- 
tract in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 57). It should be made a topic for a 
special report by some student to the class. (This seems a good place to call the 
attention of teachers to one feature of the present textbook. The story just 
referred to might easily be put into the text ; but it would take up much space ; 
and though interesting, it has little historical value. At least, it is in no way 
essential for understanding the rest of the history. More important still,— 
any student who has Herodotus accessible can tell the story as well as this 
book could do it. This is the kind of outside reading that any student likes 
to do, and a kind that any student is perfectly able <o <Zo.) 



168 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§ 166 

Thessaly just before 500 b.c, and the same motives that had 
carried Persian arms through Thrace and Macedonia would 
have carried them on into Greece. Persia was still in full 
career of conquest. The Greek peninsula was small ; but its 
cities were becoming wealthy, and Persia coveted them for 
their ships and their trade. The real significance of the Ionian 
war was that it helped to delay the main Persian onset mitil the 
Greeks were better prepared. The Athenians had been wise, as 
well as generous, in aiding the lonians. 

166. First Expedition against Greece, 492 B.C. Mount Athos. — 
Immediately after the end of the Ionian revolt Darius began 
vast preparations for the invasion of Greece. A mighty army 
was gathered at the Hellespont under Mardoyiius, son-in-law of 
the king; and a large fleet was collected. This was to sail 
along the coast, in constant touch with the army, and furnish 
it, day by day, with provisions and other supplies. In 492, 
these forces set out, advancing along the shores of the Aegean. 
But the army suffered from constant attacks by the savage 
Thracian tribes; and finally, as the fleet was rounding the rocky 
promontory of Mount Athos, a terrible storm dashed it to 
pieces. With it were wrecked all hopes of success. Mardonius 
had no choice but to retreat into Asia. 

167. Second Expedition, 490 B.C. Marathon. — This failure 
tilled Darius with wrath. Such a check in an expedition 
against the petty Greek states was wholly unexpected. Mar- 
donius, though an able general, was disgraced, and preparations 
were begun for a new expedition. 

Meantime, in 491, heralds were sent to all the Greek cities 
to demand " earth and water," in token of submission. The 
islands in the Aegean yielded at once. In continental Greece 
the demand was in general quietly refused ; but, in Athens and 
Sparta, indignation ran so high that even the sacred character 
of ambassadors did not save the messengers. At Athens they 
were thrown into a pit, and at Sparta into a well, and told to 
" take thence what they wanted." 

In the spring of 490, the Persians were ready for the second 



§167] THE SECOND ATTACK 169 

expedition. This time, taking warning from tlie disaster at 
Mount Athos, the troops were embarked on a mighty fleet, 
which proceeded directly across the Aegean. Stopping only 
to receive the submission of certain islands by the way, the 
fleet reached the island of Euboea without a check. 

There Eretria (§ 164) was captured, through treachery. The 
city was destroyed, and most of the people were sent in chains 
to Persia. Then the Persians landed on the plain of Marathon 
in Attica, to punish Athens. Hippias, the exiled tyrant 
(§ 147), was with the invaders, hoping to get back his throne 
as a servant of Persia ; and he had pointed out this admirable 
place for disembarking the Persian cavalry. 

At first most of the Athenians wished to fight only behind 
their walls. Sooner or later, this must have resulted in ruin, 
especially as there were some traitors within the city hoping 
to admit Hippias. Happily Miltiades, one of the ten Generals 
(§ 152), persuaded the commanders to march out and attack 
the Persians at once.^ 

From the rising ground where the hills of Mount Pentelicus 
meet the plain, the ten thousand Athenian hoplites faced the 
Persian host for the first struggle between Greeks and Asiatics 
on European ground. Sparta had promised aid; and, at the 
first news of the Persian approach, a swift runner (Phidippi- 
des) had raced the hundred and fifty miles of rugged hill 
country to implore Sparta to hasten. He reached Sparta on 
the second day ; but the Spartans waited a week, on the ground 
that an old law forbade them to set out on a military expedi- 
tion before the full moon. The Athenians felt bitterly that 
Sparta was ready to look on, not unwillingly, while the 
"second city in Greece" was destroyed. 

At all events, Athens was left to save herself (and oui 
Western world) as best she could, with help from only one city. 
This was heroic little Plataea, in Boeotia, near by. Athens 
had sometimes protected the democratic government of that 

1 This story should be read in Herodotus, or, even better in some ways, 
in the extracts in Davis' Readings, with Dr. Davis' admirable introductions. 



170 



THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS 



[§167 



city from attack by the powerful oligarchs of Thebes. The 
Plataeans remembered this gratefully, and, on the eve of 
the battle, marched into the Athenian camp with their full 
force of a thousand hoplites. Then Athenians and Plataeans 
won a marvelous victory over perhaps ten times their number^ 
of the most famous soldiery in the world. The result was due 
to the generalship of Miltiades, and to the superior equipment 
of the Greek hoplite. 

Miltiades drew out his front as thin as he dared, to prevent 
the long Persian front from overlapping and " flanking " him. 

To accomplish this, he 
weakened his center dar- 
ingly, so as to mass all the 
men he could spare from 
there in the wings. He 
meant these wings to bear 
the brunt of battle, and 
ordered them to advance 
more rapidly than the thin 
center. Then he moved 
his forces down the slope 
toward the Persian lines. 
While yet an arrow's flight distant, the advancing Greeks broke 
into a run, according to Miltiades' orders, so as to cover the rest 
of the ground before the Persian archers could get in their 
deadly work. Onoe at close quarters, the heavy weapons of 
the Greeks gave them overwhelming advantage. Their dense, 
heavy array, charging with long, outstretched spears, by its 
sheer weight broke the light- armed Persian lines, which were 




Plan of Marathon. Cf. map, page 180. 



1 The figures, on the next page, for the slain, are probably trustworthy ; but 
all numbers given for the Persian army, in this or other campaigns, are 
guesses. Ancient historians put the Persians at Marathon at from a quarter 
to half a million. Modern scholars are sure that no ancient fleet could possi- 
bly carry any considerable part of such a force, — and, indeed, it is clear that 
the ancient authorities had no basis for their figures. Modern guesses — 
they are nothing better — put the Persian force at Marathon all the way from 
100,000 down to 20,000. 



1167] 



THE SECOND ATTACK 



171 



utterly unprepared for conflict on such terms. The Persians 
fought gallantly, as usual; but their darts and light scimetars 
made little impression upon the heavy bronze armor of the 
Greeks, while their linen tunics and wicker shields counted for 
little against the thrust of the Greek spear. Fcr a time, it 
is true, the Greek center had to give ground; but the two 




Marathon To-day. — From a photograph. The camera stood a little above 
the Athenian camp in the Plan on the opposite page. That camp was in 
the first open space in the foreground, where the poplar trees are scattered. 
The land beyond the strip of water is the narrow peninsula running out 
from the " Marsh " in the Plan. 



wings, having routed the forces in front of them, wheeled 
upon the Persian center, crushing upon both flanks at the 
same moment, and drove it in disorder to the ships. One 
hundred ninety-two Athenians fell. The Persians left over 
sixty-four hundred dead upon the field. 

The Athenians tried also to seize the fleet; but here they 
were repulsed. The Persians embarked and sailed safely away. 
They took a course that might lead to Athens. Moreover, the 



172 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§16^ 

Greek army had just seen sun-signals flashing to the enemy 
from some traitor's shield in the distant mountains ; and MiL 
tiades feared them to be an invitation to attack the city in the 
absence of the army. To check such plots, he sent the runner 
Phidippides to announce the victory to Athens. Already ex- 
hausted by the battle, Phidippides put forth supreme effort, 
raced the twenty -two miles of mountain road from Marathon, 
shouted exultantly to the eager, anxious crowds, — " Ours the 
victory," — and fell dead.^ 

Meanwhile Miltiades was hurrying the rest of his wearied 
army, without rest, over the same road. Fortunately the 
Persian fleet had to sail around a long promontory (map, 
page 180), and when it appeared off Athens, the next morn- 
ing, Miltiades and his hoplites had arrived also. The 
Persians did not care to face again the men of Marathon ; 
and the same day they set sail for Asia.^ 

168. Importance of Marathon. — Merely as a military event 
Marathon is an unimportant skirmish ; but, in its results upon 
human welfare, it is among the few really " decisive " battles 
of the world. Whether Egyptian conquered Babylonian, or 
Babylonian conquered Egyptian, mattered little in the long run. 
Possibly, whether Spartan or Athenian prevailed over the 
other mattered not much more. But it did matter whether 
or not the huge, inert East should crush the new life out of 
the West Marathon decided that the West should live on. 

For the Athenians themselves, Marathon began a new era^ 
Natural as the victory came to seem in later times, it took high 
courage on that day to stand before the hitherto unconquered 
Persians, even without such tremendous odds. "The Athe- 
nians/' says Herodotus, " were the first of the Greeks to face 

iThe student will like to read, or to hear read, Browning's poem, Pheidip- 
pides, with the story of both rvins by this Greek hero. Compare this story 
with Herodotus' account in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 59. The famous 
run from the battlefield to the city is the basis of the modern " Marathon " 
race, in which champion athletes of all countries compete. 

2 The full story of this battle should be read as Herodotus tells it. It is 
given in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, Nos. 59, 60. 



§ 169] AN INTERVAL OF PREPARATION 173 

the Median garments, . . . whereas np to this time the very- 
name of Mede [Persian] had been a terror to the Hellenes." 
Athens broke the spell for the rest of Greece, and grew herself to 
heroic stature in an hour. The sons of the men who conquered 
on that field could find no odds too crushing, no prize too' 
dazzling, in the years to come. It was now that the Athenian 
character first showed itself as Thucydides described it a century 
later : " The Athenians are the only people who succeed to 
the full extent of their hope, because they throw themselves tvith- 
out reserve into whatever they resolve to do.'' 

ATHENS — FROM MARATHON TO THERMOPYLAE 

169. Internal Faction Crushed. — Soon after Marathon, Egypt 
revolted against Persia. Tliis gave the Greeks ten years more for 
preparation ; but, except in Athens, little use was made of the 
interval. In that city the democratic forces grew stronger 
and more united, while the oligarchs were weakened. 

One incident in this change was the ruin of Miltiades, the 
hero of Marathon. Miltiades was originally an Athenian noble 
who had made himself tyrant of Chersonesus (map after 
page 94). Not long before the Persian invasion, he had 
brought upon himself the hatred of the Great King,^ and had 
fled back to Athens. Here he became at once a prominent 
supporter of the oligarchic party. The democrats tried to 
prosecute him for his previous " tyranny " ; but the attempt 
failed, and when the Persian invasion came, the Athenians 
were fortunate in having his experience and ability to guide 
them. Soon after Marathon, however, Miltiades failed in an 
expedition against Paros, into which he had persuaded the 
Athenians ; and then the hostile democracy secured his 
overthrow. He was condemned to pay an immense fine, and 
is said to have died soon afterward in prison. 

This blow was followed by the ostracism of some oligarchic 
leader each season for several years, until that party was utterly 

1 Report the story from Herodotus, if a translation is accessible. 



174 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§170 

broken. Thus Athens was saved from its most serious inter- 
nal dissension. 

170. Themistocles makes Athens a Naval Power. — The victo- 
rious democrats at once divided into new parties. The more 
•moderate section was content with the constitution of Clis- 
thenes and was disposed to follow old customs. Its leader 
was Aristides^ a calm, conservative man, surnamed " the Just." 
The radical wing, favoring new methods and further change, 
was led by Themistocles. Themistocles was sometimes less 
scrupulous and upright than Aristides, but he was one of the 
most resourceful and far-sighted statesmen of all history. 

Themistocles desired passionately one great departure from 
past custom in Athenian affairs. He wished to make Athens 
a naval power. He saiv clearly that the real struggle with Persia 
was yet to come, and that the result could he decided by victory on 
the sea. Such victory was more probable for the Greeks than 
victory on land. Huge as the Persian empire was, it had no 
seacoast except Egypt, Phoenicia, and Ionia. It could not, 
therefore, so vastly outnumber the Greeks in ships as in men ; 
and if the Greeks could secure command of the sea, Persia 
would be unable to attack them at all. 

But this proposed naval policy for Athens broke with all 
tradition, and could not win without a struggle. Seafarers 
though the Greeks were, up to this time they had not used 
ships much in war. Attica, in particular, had almost no navy. 
The party of Aristides wished to hold to the old policy of 
fighting on land, and they had the glorious victory of Marathon 
to strengthen their arguments. Feeling ran high. Finally, 
in 483, the leaders agreed to let a vote of ostracism decide 
between them. Fortunately, Aristides was ostracized (§ 153), 
and for some years the influence of Themistocles was the 
strongest power in Athens. 

While the voting was going on (according to Herodotus) a stupid fellow, 
who did not know Aristides, asked him to write the name Aristides on the 
shell he was about to vote. Aristides did so, asking, however, what harm 
Aristides had ever done the man. "iVoharm," replied the voter; "in 



§ 171] THE MAIN ATTACK 175 

deed, I do not know him; but I am tired of hearing him called 'the Just.' " 
Read the other anecdotes about Aristides in Davis' Headings, Vol. I, No. 61. 

Themistocles at once put his new policy into operation. 
Rich veins of silver had recently been discovered in the mines 
of Attica. These mines belonged to the city, and a large reve- 
nue from them had accumulated in the public treasury. It 
had been proposed to divide the money among the citizens ; 
but Themistocles persuaded his countrymen tc reject this 
tempting plan, and instead to build a great fleet Thanks to 
this policy, in the next three years Athens became the great- 
est naval power in Hellas. The decisive victory of Salamis 
was to be the result (§ 179). 

THE THIRD ATTACK, 480-479 b.c. 

171. Persian Preparation. — Meantime, happily for the world, 
the great Darius died, and the invasion of Greece fed to his* 
feebler son, Xerxes. Marathon had proved that no Persian 
fleet by itself could transport enough troops ; so the plan of 
Mardonius' expedition (§ 166) was tried again, but upon a 
larger scale, both as to army and fleet. 

To guard against another accident at Mt. Athos, a canal for 
ships was cut through the isthmus at the back of that rocky 
headland, — a great engineering work that took three years. 
Meantime, supplies were collected at stations along the way; 
the Hellespont was bridged with chains of boats covered with 
planks ; ^ and at last, in the spring of 480, Xerxes in person 
led a mighty host of many nations into Europe. 

Ancient reports put the Asiatics at from one and a half 
million to two million soldiers, with followers and attendants 
to raise the total to five millions. Modern critics think 
Xerxes may have had some half-million troops, with numerous 
followers. In any case, the numbers vastly exceeded those 
which the Greeks could bring against them. A fleet of twelve 
hundred ships accompanied the army. 

1 Read Herodotus' story of Xerxes' wrath when the first bridge broke, and 
how he ordered the Hellespont to be flogged (Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 64), 



176 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§171 

172. The Greek Preparation, — The danger forced the Greeks 
into something like common action : into a greater unity, indeed, 
than they had ever known. Sparta and Athens joined in call- 
ing a Hellenic congress at Corinth, on the isthmus, in 481 b.c» 
The deputies that appeared bound their cities by oath to aid 
one another, and pledged their common efforts to punish any 
states that should join Persia. Ancient feuds were pacified. 
Plans of campaign were discussed, and Sparta was formally 
recognized as leader. In spite of Athens' recent heroism, the 
belief in Sparta's invincibility in war was too strong to permit 
any other choice. 

Messengers were sent also to implore aid from outlying por- 
tions of Hellas, but with little result. Crete excused herself 
on a superstitious scruple. Corcyra promised a fleet, but took 
care it should not arrive ; and the Greek tyrants in Sicily and 
Magna Graecia had their hands full at home with the Cartha- 
ginian invasion (§ 160). 

The outlook was full of gloom. Argos, out of hatred for 
Sparta, and Thebes, from jealousy of Athens, had refused to 
attend the congress, and were ready to join Xerxes. Even the 
Delphic oracle, which was of course consulted in such a crisis, 
predicted ruin and warned- the Athenians in particular to flee 
to the ends of the earth. 

173. The Lines of Defense. — Against a land attack the 
Greeks had three lines of defense. The first was at the Vale 
of Tempe near Mount Olympus, where only a narrow pass 
opened into Thessaly. The second was at Thermopylae, where 
the mountains shut off northern from central ^ Greece, except 
for a road only a few feet in width. The third was behind the 
Isthmus of Corinth. 

174. Plan of Campaign. — At the congress at Corinth the 
Peloponnesians had wished selfishly to abandon the first two lines. 
They urged that all patriotic Greeks should retire at once 
within the Peloponnesus, the final citadel of Greece, and for- 

1 For these terms, see map study, page 95 



§ 176] THERMOPYLAE 177 

tify the isthmus by an impregnable wall. This plan was as 
foolish as it was selfish. Greek troops might have held the 
isthmus against the Persian land army ; but the Pelopon- 
nesus was readily open to attack by sea, and the Persian fleet 
would have found it easier here than at either of the other 
lines of defense to land troops in the Greek rear, without losing 
touch with its oivn army. Such a surrender of two thirds of 
Greece, too, would have meant a tremendous reinforcement of 
the enemy by excellent Greek soldiery. Accordingly, it was 
finally decided to resist the entrance of the Persians into Greece 
by meeting them at the Vale of Tempe. 

175. The Loss of Thessaly. — Sparta, however, had no gift 
for going to meet an attack, but must always await it on the 
enemy's terms. A hundred thousand men should have held 
the Vale of Tempe ; but only a feeble garrison was sent there, 
and it retreated before the Persians appeared. Through 
Sparta's incapacity for leadership, Xerxes entered Greece 
without a blow. Then the Thessalian cities, deserted by their 
allies, joined the invaders with their powerful cavalry. 

176. Thermopylae : Loss of Central Greece. — This loss of 
Thessaly made it evident, even to Spartan statesmen, that to 
abandon central Greece would strengthen Xerxes further ; and 
it was decided in a half-hearted way to make a stand at Ther- 
mopylae. The pass was only some twenty feet wide between 
the cliff and the sea, and the only other path was one over the 
mountain, equally easy to defend. Moreover, the long island 
of Euboea approached the mainland just opposite the pass, so 
that the Greek fleet in the narrow strait could guard the land 
army against having troops landed in the rear. 

The Greek fleet at this place numbered 270 ships. Of these 
the Athenians furnished half. The admiral was a Spartan, 
though his city sent only sixteen ships. The land defense had 
been left to the Peloponnesian league. This was the supremely 
important duty ; but the force, which Sparta had sent to attend 
to it, was shamefully small. The Spartan king, Leonidas, held 
the pass with three hundred Spartans and a few thousand 



178 



THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS 



[§176 



allies. The main force of Spartans was again left at home, on 
the ground of a religious festival. 

The Persians reached Thermopylae without a check. Battle 
was joined at once on land and sea, and raged for three days. 
Four hundred Persian ships were wrecked in a storm, and the 
rest were checked by the Greek fleet in a sternly contested con- 




Thermopylae. 
From a photograph : to show the steepness of the mountain side. 

flict at Artemisium, On land, Xerxes flung column after col- 
umn of chosen troops into the pass, to be beaten back each time 
in rout. But on the third night, Ephialtes, "the Judas of 
Greece," guided a force of Persians over the mountain path, 
which the Spartans had left only slightly guarded. Leonidas 
knew that he could no longer hold his position. He sent 
home his allies; but he and his three hundred Spartans re- 
mained to die in the pass which their country had given them 



§ 177] THERMOPYLAE 179 

to defend. They charged joyously upon the Persian spears, 
and fell fighting, to a man.^ 

Sparta had shown no capacity to command in this great 
crisis. Twice her shortsightedness had caused the loss of 
vital positions. But at Thermopylae her citizens had set 
Greece an example of calm heroism that has stirred the world 
ever since. In later times the burial place of the Three Hundred 
was marked by this inscription, " Stranger, go tell at Sparta 
that we lie here in obedience to her command." 

177. Destruction of Athens. — Xerxes advanced on Athens 
and was joined by most of central Greece. The Theban oli- 
garchs, in particular, welcomed him with genuine joy. The 
Peloponnesians would risk no further battle outside their own 
peninsula. They withdrew the army, and fell back upon their 
first plan of building a wall across the isthmus. Athens was 
left open to Persian vengeance. 

The news threw that city into uproar and despair. The 
Delphic oracle was appealed to, but it prophesied utter destruc- 
tion. Themistocles (perhaps by bribery) finally secured from 
the priestess an additional prophecy, that when all else was 
destroyed, " wooden walls " would still defend the Athenians. 
Many citizens then wished to retire within the wooden palisade 
of the Acropolis; but Themistocles, the guiding genius of the 
stormy day, persuaded them that the oracle meant the " wooden 
walls " of their ships. 

The Greek fleet had withdrawn from Artemisium, after the 
Persians won the land pass ; and the Spartan admiral was 
bent upon retiring at once to the position of the Peloponnesian 
army, at the isthmus. By vehement entreaties, Themistocles 
persuaded him to hold the whole fleet for a day or two at 
Athens, to help remove the women and children and old men 
to Salamis and other near-by islands. More than 200,000 

^One Spartan, who had been left for dead by the Persians, afterward re- 
covered and returned home. But his fellow-citizens treated him with pitying 
contempt ; and at the next great battle, he sought and found death, fighting 
in the front rank. 



180 



THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS 



[§m 



people had to be moved from their homes. There was no time 
to save property. The Persians marched triumphantly through 
Attica, burning villages and farmsteads, and laid Athens and 
its temples in ashes. 




G, the Greek fleet at Salamis. PPP, the Persian fleet. X, the Throne 
of Xerxes. (The " Long Walls " were not built until later ; § 200.) 

178. Strategy of Themistocles. — But Themistocles, in delay- 
ing the retreat of the fleet, planned for more than escape. He 
was determined that the decisive battle shoidd be a sea battle, and 
that it should be fought where the fleet then lay. No other spot 
so favorable could be found. The narrow strait between the 
Athenian shore and Salamis would embarrass the Persian num- 
bers, and help to make up for the small numbers of the Greek 
ships. Themistocles saw, too, that if they withdrew to 



§ 178] THEMISTOCLES 181 

Corinth, as the Peloponnesians insisted, all chance of united 
action would be lost. The fleet would break up. Some ships 
would sail home to defend their own island cities ; and others, 
like those of Megara and Aegina, feeling that their cities were 
deserted, might join the Persians. 

The fleet had grown now to 378 ships. The Athenians 
furnished 200 of these. With wise and generous patriotism, 
they had yielded the chief command to Sparta, but of course 
Themistocles carried weight in the council of captains. It was 





^^^^^^^^^^^^B 








^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 




?"^^^^^^^*i^^^ , 





The Bay of Salamis. — From a photograph. 

he who, by persuasion, entreaties, and bribes, had kept the navy 
from abandoning the land forces at Thermopylae, before the 
sea fight off Artemisium. A similar but greater task now fell 
to him. Debate waxed fierce in the all-night council of the 
captains. Arguments were exhausted, and Themistocles had 
recourse to threats. The Corinthian admiral sneered that the 
allies need not regard a man who no longer represented a 
Greek city. The Athenian retorted that he represented two 
hundred ships, and could make a city, or take one, where he 
chose ; and, by a threat to sail away to found a new Athens in 
Italy, he forced the allies to remain. Even then the decision 
would have been reconsidered, had not the wily Themistocles 
made use of a strange stratagem. With pretended friendship, 



182 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§179 

he sent a secret message to Xerxes, notifying him of the weak- 
ness and dissensions of the Greeks, and advisiyig him to block up 
the straits to prevent their escape. 

Xerxes took this treacherous advice. Aristides, whose os- 
tracism had been revoked in the hour of danger, and who now 
slipped through the hostile fleet in his single ship to join his 
countrymen, brought the news that they were surrounded. 
There was now no choice but to fight. 

179. The Battle of Salamis. — The Persian fleet was twice 
the size of the Greek, and was itself largely made up of Asiatic 
Greeks, while the Phoenicians and Egyptians, who composed 
the remainder, were famous sailors. The conflict the next 
day lasted from dawn to night, but the Greek victory was 
complete. 

" A king sat on the rocky brow i 

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; 

And ships by thousands lay below, 

And men in nations, — aU were his. 

He counted them at break of day. 

And when the sun set, where were they ? ' ' 

Aeschylus, an Athenian poet who was present in the battle, 
gives a noble picture of it in his drama, Tlie Persians. The 
speaker is a Persian, telling the story to the Persian queen- 
mother : — 

"Not in flight 
The Hellenes then their solemn paeans sang. 
But with brave spirits hastening on to battle. 
With martial sound the trumpet fired those ranks : 
And straight with sweep of oars that flew thro' foam. 
They smote the loud waves at the boatswain's call . . . 
And all at once we heard a mighty shout — 
'0 sons of Hellenes., forward^ free your country ; 
Free., too., your wives, your children, and the shrines 
Built to your fathers^ Gods, and holy tombs 
Your ancestors now rest in. The fight 
Is for our all. ' . . . 

1 A golden throne had been set up for Xerxes, that he might better viev« 
the battle. These lines are from Byron. 



5 181] SALAMIS 183 

. . . And the hulls of ships 
Floated capsized, nor could the sea be seen, 
Filled as it was with wrecks and carcasses ; 
And all the shores and rocks were full of corpses, 
And every ship was wildly rowed in flight, 
All that composed the Persian armament. 
And they [Greeks], as men spear tunnies, or a haul 
Of other fishes, with the shafts of oars, 
Or spars of wrecks, went smiting, cleaving down ; 
And bitter groans and wailings overspread 
The wide sea waves, till eye of swarthy night 
Bade it all cease ... Be assured 
That never yet so great a multitude 
Died in a single day as died in this." 

180. Two incidents in the celebration of the victory throw light upon 
Greek character. 

The commanders of the various city contingents in the Greek fleet 
voted a prize of merit to the city that deserved best in the action. The 
Athenians had furnished more than half the whole fleet ; they were the 
first to engage, and they had especially distinguished themselves ; they 
had seen their city laid in ashes, and only their steady patriotism had 
made a victory possible. Peloponnesian jealousy^ however^ passed them 
hy for their rival, Aegina^ which had joined the Spartan league. 

A vote was taken, also, to award prizes to the two most meritorious 
commanders. Each captain voted for himself for the first place, while 
all voted for Themistocles for the second. 

181. The Temptation of Athens. — On the day of Salamis the 
Sicilian Greeks won a decisive victory over the Carthaginians 
at Himera. For a while, that battle closed the struggle in 
the West. In Greece the Persian chances were still good, 
Xerxes, it is true, fled at once to Asia with his shattered fleet ; 
but he left his general, the experienced Mardonius, with three 
hundred thousand chosen troops. Mardonius withdrew from 
central Greece for the time, to winter in the plains of Thessaly ; 
but he would be ready to renew the struggle in the spring. 

The Athenians began courageously to rebuild their city. 
Mardonius looked upon them as the soul of the Greek resist- 
ance, and in the early spring, he offered them an alliance, with 
many favors and with the complete restoration of their city at 



184 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§182 

Persian expense. Sparta was terrified lest the Athenians 
should accept so tempting an offer, and sent in haste, with 
many promises, to beg them not to desert the cause of Hellas. 
There was no need of such anxiety. The Athenians had 
already sent back the Persian messenger: "Tell Mardonius 
that so long as the sun holds on his way in heaven, the 
Athenians will come to no terms with Xerxes.'' They then 
courteously declined the Spartan offer of aid in rebuilding 
their city, and asked only that Sparta take the field early enough 
so that Athens need not he again abandoned without a battle. 

Sparta made the promise^ but did not keep it. Mardonius 
approached rapidly. The Spartans found another sacred fes- 
tival before which it would not do to leave their homes ; and 
the Athenians, in bitter disappointment, a second time took 
refuge at Salamis. With their city in his hands, Mardonius 
offered them again the same favorable terms of alliance. Only 
one of the Athenian Council favored even submitting the 
matter to the people, — and he was instantly stoned by the 
enraged populace, while the women inflicted a like cruel fate 
upon his wife and children. Even such violence does not 
obscure the heroic self-sacrifice of the Athenians. Mardonius 
burned Athens a second time, laid waste the farms over 
Attica, cut down the olive groves (the slow growth of many 
years), and then retired to the level plains of Boeotia. 

182. Battle of Plataea, 479 b.c. — Athenian envoys had been 
at Sparta for weeks begging for instant action, but they had 
been put off with meaningless delays. The fact was, Sparta 
still clung to the stupid plan of defending only the isthmus, 
— which was all that she had made real preparations for. 
Some of her keener allies, however, at last made the Ephors 
see the uselessness of the wall at Corinth if the Athenians 
should be forced to join Persia with their fleet, as in that 
case, the Persians could land an army anywhere they chose 
in the rear of the wall. So Sparta decided to act ; and she 
gave a striking proof of her resources. One morning the 
Athenian envoys, who had given up hope, announced indig- 



§ 183] PLATAEA 185 

nantly to the Spartan government that they would at once 
return home. To their amazement^ they were told that during 
the night 50,000 Peloponnesian troops had set out for central 
Greece. 

The Athenian forces and other reinforcements raised the total 
of the Greek army to about 100,000, and the final contest with 
Mardoniu3 was fought near the little town of Plataea. Spartan 
generalship blundered sadly, and many of the allies were not 
brought into the fight ; but the stubborn Spartan valor and the 
Athenian skill and dash won a victory which became a massacre 
It is said that of the 260,000 Persians engaged, only 3000 
escaped to Asia. The Greeks lost 154 men. 

183. The Meaning of the Greek Victory. — The victory of 
Plataea closed the first great period of the Persian Wars. A 
second period was to begin at once, but it had to do with freeing 
the Asiatic Greeks. That is, Europe took the offensive. No 
hostile Persian ever again set foot in European Greece. 

A Persian victory would have meant the extinction of the 
world's best hope. The Persian civilization was Oriental 
(§§ 80, 81). Marathon and Salamis decided that the des- 
potism of the East should not crush the rising freedom of 
the West in its first home. 

To the Greeks themselves their victory opened a new epoch. 
They were victors over the greatest of world-empires. It was 
a victory of intellect and spirit over matter. Unlimited confi- 
dence gave them still greater power. New energies stirred in 
their veins and found expression in manifold forms. The 
matchless bloom of Greek art and thought, in the next two 
generations, had its roots in the soil of Marathon and Plataea. 

Moreover, slow as the Greeks had been to see Sparta's poor 
management, most of them could no longer shut their eyes 
to it. Success had been due mainly to the heroic self-sacri- 
fice and the splendid energy and wise patriotism of Athens. 
And that city — truest representative of Greek culture — was 
soon to take her proper place in the political leadership of 
Greece, 



186 THE GREEKS — PERSIAN WARS [§ 183 

Exercises. — 1 Summarize the causes of the Persian Wars. 2. Devise 
and memorize a series of catch-words for rapid statement, that shall sug« 
gest the outline of the story quickly. Thus : — 

Persian conquest of Lydia and so of Asiatic Greeks ; revolt of Ionia, 
500 B.C. ; Athenian aid ; reconquest of Ionia. First expedition against 
European Greece^ 492 b.c, through Thrace : Mount Athos. Second expe- 
dition, across the Aegean, two years later : capture of Eretria ; landing 
at Marathon ; excuses of Sparta ; arrival of Plataeans ; Miltiades and 
battle of Marathon, 490 B.C. 

(Let the student continue the series. In this way, the whole story may 
be reviewed in two minutes, with reference to every important event.) 



For Further Reading. — Specially suggested: Davis' Headings 
gives the whole story of Xerxes' invasion as the Greeks themselves told 
it, in Vol. I, Nos. 62-73, — about 47 pages. Nowhere else can it be read 
so well ; and the high school student who does read that account can 
afford to omit modern authorities. If he reads further, it may well be 
in one of the volumes mentioned below, mainly to see how the modem 
authority has used or criticised the account by Herodotus. 

Additional: Cox's Greeks and Persians is an admirable little book: 
chs. v-viii may be read for this story. Bury is rather critical ; but the 
student may profitably explore his pages for parts of the story (pp. 265- 
296). Many anecdotes are given in Plutarch's Zives (" Themistocles " 
and " Aristides"). 



CHAPTER XIII 

ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP, 478-431 B.C. 

(From the Persian War to the Peloponnesian Wak) 

The history of Athens is for us the history of Greece. — Holm. 

GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 

184. Athens Fortified. — Immediately after Plataea, the 
Athenians began once more to rebuild their temples and homes. 
Themistocles, however, persuaded them to leave even these in 
ashes and first surround the city with walls. Some Greek cities 
at once showed themselves basely eager to keep Athens help- 
less. Corinth, especially, urged Sparta to interfere ; and, to her 
shame, Sparta did call upon the Athenians to give up the plan. 
Such walls, she said, might prove an advantage to the Persians 
if they should again occupy Athens. Attica, which had been 
ravaged so recently by the Persians, was in no condition to 
resist a Peloponnesian army. So, neglecting all private mat- 
ters, the Athenians toiled with desperate haste — men, women, 
children, and slaves. The irregular nature of the walls told 
the story to later generations. No material was too precious. 
Inscribed tablets and fragments of sacred temples and even 
monuments from the burial grounds were seized for the work. 
To gain the necessary time, Themistocles had recourse to wiles. 
As Thucydides (§ 224) tells the story : — 

" The Athenians, by the advice of Themistocles, replied that they 
would send an embassy to discuss the matter, and so got rid of the Spar- 
tan envoys. Themistocles then proposed that he should himself start at 
once for Sparta, and that they should give him colleagues who were not 
to go immediately, but were to wait until the wall had reached a height 
which could be defended. ... On his arrival, he did not at once pre- 
sent himself officially to the magistrates, but delayed and made excuses, 

187 



188 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§185 

and when any of them asked him why he did not appear before the 
Assembly, he said that he was waiting for his colleagues who had been 
detained. . . . The friendship of the magistrates for Themistocles in- 
duced them to believe him, but when everybody who came from Athens 
declared positively that the wall was building, and had already reached a 
considerable height, they knew not what to think. Aware of their 
suspicions, Themistocles asked them not to be misled by reports, but to 
send to Athens men of their own whom they could trust, to see for them- 
selves. 

" The Spartans agreed ; and Themistocles, at the same time, privately 
instructed the Athenians to detain the Spartan envoys as quietly as pos- 
sible, and not let them go till he and his colleagues had got safely home. 
For by this time, those who were joined with him in the embassy had 
arrived, bringing the news that the wall was of sufficient height, and he 
was afraid that the Lacedaemonians, i when they heard the truth, might 
not allow him to return. So the Athenians detained the envoys, and 
Themistocles, coming before the Lacedaemonians, at length declared, in 
so many words, that Athens was now provided with walls and would pro- 
tect her citizens : henceforward, if the Lacedaemonians wished at any 
time to negotiate, they must deal with the Athenians as with men who 
knew quite well what was best for their own and the common good." 

185. The Piraeus. — Themistocles was not yet content. 
Athens lay some three miles from the shore. Until a 
few years before, her only port had been an open road- 
stead, — the Phalerum ; but during his archonship in 493, 
as part of his plan for naval greatness, Themistocles had 
given the city a magnificent harbor, by improving the bay of 
the Piraeus, at great expense. Now he persuaded the people 
to fortify this new port. Accordingly, the Piraeus, on the 
land side, was surrounded with a massive wall of solid masonry, 
clamped with iron, sixteen feet broad and thirty feet high, so 
that old men and boys might easily defend it against any 
enemy. Tlie Athenians now had two ivalled cities, each four or 
five miles in circuit, and only four miles apart. 

186. Commerce and Sea Power. — The alien merchants, who 
dwelt at the Athenian ports, had fled at the Persian invasion ; 

1 Lacedaemonia is the name given to the whole Spartan territory. See 
map, page 98. 



§187] 



ATHENIAN COMMERCE 



189 



but this new security brought them back in throngs, to con- 
tribute to the power and wealth of Athens. Themistocles took 
care, too, that Athens should not lose her supremacy on the sea. 
Even while the walls of the Piraeus were building, he secured 
a vote of the Assembly ordering that twenty new ships should 
be added each year to the fleet. 



-Port of Piraeus 

QQQ _ Porticoes and 
^^^ Corn-market 



.Tomb of 
Themistocles 




^ //i 



S A R O N I C G U 



aaa -Walls of Themistocles. 
6 6 6. -Old City Limits. 

A —Acropolis. 

B —Areopagus. 

C -Pnyx. 

D -Museum. 

E —Agora. 



Plan of Athens and its Ports. i 



187. Attempt at One League of All Hellas. — While the Greek army 

was still encamped on the field of victory at Plataea, it was agreed to 
hold there each year a Congress of all Greek cities. For a little time 
back, danger had forced a make-shift union upon the Greeks. The plan 
at Plataea was a wise attempt to make this union into a permanent con- 
federacy of all Hellas. The proposal came from the Athenians, with 
the generous understanding that Sparta should keep the headship. The 
plan failed. Indeed, the jealous hostility of Sparta regarding the fortifi- 
cation of Athens showed that a true union would be difficult. Instead of 
one confederacy, Greece fell apart into two rival leagues. 



1 The "Long Walls" were not built until several years after the events 
mentioned in this section. See § 200. 



190 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§188 

188. Sparta and Athens. — Though Sparta had held command 
in the war, still the repulse of Persia had counted most for the 
glory of Athens. Athens had made greater sacrifices than any- 
other state. She had shown herself free from petty vanity, 
and had acted with a broad patriotism. She had furnished 
the best ideas and ablest leaders ; and, even in the field, Athe- 
nian enterprise and vigor had accomplished as much as Spartan 
discipline and valor. 

Sparta had been necessary at the beginning. Had it not 
been for her great reputation, the Greeks would not have 
known where to turn for a leader, and so, probably, could not 
have come to any united action. But she had shown miserable 
judgment ; her leaders, however brave, had proved incapable ^ ; 
and, now that war against Persia was to be carried on at a 
distance, her lack of enterprise became even more evident. 
Meantime, events were happening in Asia Minor which were 
to force Athens into leadership. The European Greeks had 
been unwilling to follow any but Spartan generals on sea or 
land ; hut the scene of the war was now transferred to the 
Ionian coast, and there Athens was the more popular city. 
Many cities there, like Miletus, looked upon Athens as their 
mother city (§ 121). 

189. Mycale. — In the early spring of 479, a fleet had crossed 
the Aegean to assist Samos in revolt against Persia. A Spartan 
commanded the expedition, but three fifths of the ships were 
Athenian. On the very day of Plataea (so the Greeks told 
the story), these forces won a double victory at Mycale, on the 
coast of Asia Minor. They defeated a great Persian army, 
and seized and burned the three hundred Persian ships. No 
Persian feet showed itself again in the Aegean for nearly a hun- 
dred years. Persian garrisons remained in many of the islands, 
for a time ; but Persia made no attempt to reinforce them. 

1 Two of her kings were soon to play traitorous parts to Sparta and Hellas. 
Special report : King Leotychides in Thessaly. See also Pausanias at Byzan- 
tium, § 190. The boasted Spartan training did not Jit her men for the duties 
0/ the wider life now open to them. 



§ 191] THE CONFEDERACY OF DELOS 191 

190. The Ionian Greeks throw off Spartan Leadership. — The 

victory of Mycale was a signal for the cities of Ionia to revolt 
again against Persia. The Spartans, however, shrank from the 
task of defending Hellenes so far away, and proposed instead 
to remove the lonians to European Greece. The lonians refused 
to leave their homes, and the Athenians in the fleet declared 
that Sparta should not so destroy " Athenian colonies." The 
Spartans seized the excuse to sail home, leaving the Athenians to 
protect the lonians as best they could. The Athenians gal- 
lantly undertook the task, and began at once to expel the 
Persian garrisons from the islands of the Aegean. 

The next spring (478) Sparta thought better of the matter, 
and sent Pausanias to take command of the allied fleet. Pau- 
sanias had been the general of the Greeks at the battle of the 
Plataea ; but that victory had turned his head. He treated the 
allies with contempt and neglect. At last they found his inso- 
lence unbearable, and asked the Athenians to take the leader- 
ship. Just then it was discovered that Pausanias had been 
negotiating treasonably with Persia, offering to betray Hellas. 
Sparta recalled him, to stand trial,^ and sent another general to 
the fleet. The allies, however, refused to receive another 
Spartan commander. TJien Sparta and the Peloponnesian league 
withdreio wholly from the war. 

191. The Confederacy of Delos. — After getting rid of Sparta, 
the first step of the allies was to organize a confederacy. The 
chief part in this great work fell to Aristides, the commander 
of the Athenian ships in the allied fleet. Aristides proposed 
a plan of union, and appointed the number of ships and the 
amount of money that each of the allies should furnish each 
year. The courtesy and tact of the Athenian, and his known 
honesty, made all the states content with his proposals, and 
his arrangements were readily accepted.^ 

The union was called the Confederacy of Delos, because its 

1 Special report: the story of the punishment of Pausanias. 
"•Exercise. — 1. Could Themistocles have served Athens at this time as 
well as Aristides did ? 2. Report upon the later life of Themistocles. 



192 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§ 192 

seat of government and its treasury were to be at the island of 
Delos (the center of an ancient Ionian amphictyony). Here 
an annual congress of deputies from the different cities of the 
league was to meet. Each city had one vote.^ Athens was 
the " president " of the league. Her generals commanded the 
fleet, and her delegates presided at the Congress. In return, 
Athens bore nearly half the total burdens, in furnishing ships 
and men, — far more than her proper share. 

The purpose of the league was to free the Aegean completely 
from the Persians, and to keep them from ever coming back. 
The allies meant to make the union perpetual. Lumps of iron 
were thrown into the sea when the oath of union "was taken, as 
a symbol that it should be binding until the iron should float. 
The league was composed mainly of Ionian cities, interested in 
commerce. It was a natural rival of Sparta's Dorian inland 
league. 

192. The League did its work well. Its chief military hero 
was the Athenian Cimon, son of Miltiades.^ Year after year, 
under his command, the allied fleet reduced one Persian gar- 
rison after another, until the whole region of the Aegean — . 
all its coasts and islands — was free. Then, in 466, Cimon 
carried the war beyond the Aegean and won his most famous 
victory at the mouth of the Eurymedon, in Pamphylia (map 
following page 132), where in one day he destroyed a Persian 
land host and captured a fleet of 250 vessels. 

193. Naturally, the League grew in size. It came to include 
nearly all the islands of the Aegean and the cities of the 
northern and eastern coasts. The cities on the straits and 
shores of the Black Sea, too, were added, and the rich trade of 
that region streamed through the Hellespont to the Piraeus. 
After the victory of the Eurymedon, many of the cities of the 
Carian and Lycian coasts joined the confederacy. Indeed, the 
cities of the league felt that all other Greeks of the Aegean 

1 Like our states in Congress under the old Articles of Confederation. 

2 There is an interesting account of Cimon (three pages) in Davis' ReacU 
ings, Vol. I, No. 74, from Plutarch's Life, 



§ 195] THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE 193 

and of neighboring waters were under obligation to join, since 
they all had part in the blessings of the union. Aristophanes 
speaks of a " thousand cities '' in the league, but only two hun- 
dred and eighty are known by name. 

194. Some members of the League soon began to shirk. As 
soon as the pressing danger and the first enthusiam were over, 
many cities chose to pay more money, instead of furnishing ships 
and meyi. They became indifferent, too, about the congress, 
and left the management of all matters to Athens. Athens, 
on the other hand, was ambitious, and eagerly accepted both 
burdens and responsibilities. The fleet became almost wholly 
Athenian. Then it was no longer necessary for Athens to 
consult the allies as to the management of the war, and the 
congress became of little consequence. 

Another change was still more important. Here and there, 
cities began to refuse even the payment of money. This, of 
course, was secession. Such cities said that Persia was no 
longer dangerous, and that the need of the league was over. 
But the Athenian fleet, patrolling the Aegean, was all that 
kept the Persians from reappearing; and Athens, with good 
reason, hela the allies by force to their promises. 

The first attempt at secession came in 467, when the union 
was only ten years old. Naxos, one of the most powerful 
islands, refused to pay its contributions. Athens at once 
attacked Naxos, and, after a stern struggle, brought it to sub- 
mission. But the conquered state was not allowed to return into 
the union. It lost its vote in the congress, and became a mere 
subject of Athens. 

195. The "Athenian Empire." — From time to time, other 
members of the league attempted secession, and met a fate 
like that of Naxos. Athens took away their fleets, leveled 
their walls, made them pay a small tribute. Sometimes such 
a city had to turn over its citadel to an Athenian garrison. 
Usually a subject city was left to manage its internal govern- 
ment in its own way ; but it could no longer have political 
«,lliances with other cities. 



194 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§196 

Just how many such rebellions there were we do not know ; 
but before long the loyal cities found themselves treated 
much like those that had rebelled. The confederacy of equal 
states became an empire, with Athens for its "tyraiit city.'' The 
meetings of the congress ceased altogether. The treasury was 
removed from Delos to Athens, and the funds and resources 
of the union were used for the glory of Athens. 

Athens, however, did continue to perform faithfully the work 
for which the union had been created; and on the whole, despite 
the strong tendency to city independence, the subject cities 
seem to have been well content. Even hostile critics con- 
fessed that the bulk of the people looked gratefully to Athens 
for protection against the oligarchs. Athens was the true 
mother of Ionian democracy. As an Athenian orator said, 
" Athens was the champion of the masses, denying the right of 
the many to be at the mercy of the few" In nearly every city 
of the empire the ruling power became an Assembly like that 
at Athens. 

By 450 B.C. Lesbos, Chios, and Samos were the only states of the 
league which had not become "subject states" ; and ever they had no 
voice in the government of the empire. Athens, however, had other 
independent allies that had never belonged to the Delian Confederacy 
— like Plataea, Corcyra, Naupactus, and Acarnania in Greece ; Rhegium 
in Italy ; and Segesta and other Ionian cities in Sicily. 

For Further Reading. — Specially suggested : The only passage in 
Davis' Beadings for this period is Vol. I, No. 74, on Cimon. Bury, 228- 
242, covers the period. Instead of Bury, the student may well read 
Chapter 1 in Cox's Athenian Empire. Plutarch's The:nistocles and 
Aristides continue to be valuable for additional reading. 

FIRST PERIOD OF STRIFE WITH SPARTA, 461-445 b.c. 

196. Jealousy between Athens and Sparta. — Greece had di- 
vided into two great leagues, under the lead of Athens and 
Sparta. These two powers now quarreled, and their strife 
made the history of Hellas for many years. The first hostile 
step came from Sparta. In 465, Thasos, a member of the 



i 



§ 199] FIRST STRIFE WITH SPARTA 195 

Confederacy of Delos, revolted; and Athens was employed 
for two years in conquering her. During the struggle, Thasos 
asked Sparta for aid. Sparta and Athens were still nominally 
in alliance, under the league of Plataea (§ 186) ; but Sparta 
grasped at the opportunity and secretly began preparations to 
invade Attica. 

197. Athenian Aid for Sparta. — This treacherous attack was 
prevented by a terrible earthquake which destroyed part of 
Sparta and threw the whole state into confusion. The Helots 
revolted, and Messenia (§ 127) made a desperate attempt to re- 
gain her independence. Instead of attacking Athens, Sparta, 
in dire need, called upon her for aid. 

At Athens this request led to a sharp dispute. The demo- 
cratic party, led by Ephialtes^ and Pericles, was opposed to 
sending help ; but Cimon (§ 192), leader of the aristocratic 
party, urged that the true policy was for Sparta and Athena 
to aid each other in keeping a joint leadership of Hellas. 
Athens, he said, ought not to let her yoke-fellow be destroyed 
and Greece be lamed. This generous advice prevailed; and 
Cimon led an Athenian army to Sparta's aid. 

198. An Open Quarrel. — A little later, however, the Spartans 
began to suspect the Athenians, groundlessly, of the same bad 
faith of which they knew themselves guilty, and sent back the 
army with insult. Indignation then ran high at Athens ; and 
the anti-Spartan party was greatly strengthened. Cimon was 
ostracized (461 e.g.), and the aristocratic faction was left 
leaderless and helpless for many years. 

At almost the same time Ephialtes was murdered by aristo- 
crat conspirators. Thus, leadership fell to Pericles. Under 
his influence Athens formally renounced her alliance with 
Sparta. Then the two great powers of Greece stood in open 
opposition, ready for war. 

199. A Land Empire for Athens. — Thus far the Athenian 
empire had been mainly a sea power. Pericles planned to 

1 This, of course, was not the Ephialtes of Thermopylae. 



196 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§200 



extend it likewise over inland Greece, and so to supplant 
Sparta. He easily secured an alliance with Argos, Sparta's 
sleepless foe. He established Athenian influence also in Thes- 
saly, by treaties with the great chiefs there, and thus secured 
the aid of the famous Thessalian cavalry. Then Megara, on 

the Isthmus of Corinth, 
sought Athenian alliance, 
in order to protect itself 
against Corinth, its power- 
ful neighbor. This in- 
volved war with Corinth, 
but Pericles gladly wel- 
comed Megara because of 
its ports on the Corinthian 
Gulf. He then built long 
walls running the whole 
width of the narrow isth- 
mus from sea to sea, joining 
Megara and these ports. 
In control of these walls, 
Athens could prevent in- 
vasion by land from the 
Peloponnesus. 

200. Activity of Athens. 
— A rush of startling 
Pericles. events followed. Corinth 

Aportrait bust, now in the Vatican at Rome. ^^^ Aegina, bitterly angry 
because their old commerce had now been drawn to the Piraeus, 
declared war on Athens. Athens promptly captured Aegina, 
and struck Corinth blow after blow even in the Corinthian 
Gulf. At the same time, without lessening her usual fleet in the 
Aegean, she sent a mighty armament of 250 ships to carry on 
the war against Persia, by assisting Egypt in a revolt. Such 
a fleet called for from 2500 to 5000 soldiers and 50,000 sailors.* 




1 A Greek warship of this period was called a "three-banker" (trireme)^ 
because she was rowed by oarsmen arranged on three benches, une above 



§200] 



ATHENIAN ACTIVITY 



197 



The sailors came largely from the poorer citizens, and even 
from the non-citizen class. 

Pericles turned next to Boeotia, and set up friendly democ- 
racies in many of the cities there to lessen the control of oli- 
garchic and hostile Thebes. The quarrel with Sparta had 



;:=aiiiiii!^^ 




Side of Part of a Trireme. — From a relief at Athens. In this trireme 
the highest " bank " of rowers rested their oars on the gunwale. Only the 
oars of the other two banks are visible. 

become open war ; and an Athenian fleet burned the Laconian 
dock-yards. A Spartan army crossed the Corinthian Gulf and 



another. The wars which the Greeks waged in these three-bankers were hardly- 
more fierce than those that modern scholars have waged — in ink — about 
them. Some have held that each group of three oarsmen held only one oar. 
This view is now abandoned — because of the evidence of the "reliefs" on 
Greek monuments. Plainly each group of three had three separate oars, of 
different lengths ; but we do not know yet how they could have worked them 
successfully. The oars projected through port-holes, and the 174 oarsmen 
were protected from arrows by the wooden sides of the vessel. Sometimes — as 
in the illustration above — the upper bank of rowers had no protection. There 
were about 20 other sailors to each ship, for helmsman, lookouts, overseers 
of the oarsmen, and so on. And a warship never carried less than ten fully 
armed soldiers. The Athenians usually sent from 20 to 25 in each ship. 

The ships were about 120 feet long, and less than 20 feet wide. The two 
masts were always lowered for battle. Two methods of attack were in use. If 
possible, a ship crushed in the side of an opponent by ramming with its sharp 
bronze prow. This would sink the enemy's ship at once. Almost as good a 
thing was to run close along her side (shipping one's own oars on that side 
just in time), shivering her long oars and hurling her rowers from the benches. 
This left a ship as helpless as a bird with a broken wing. 



198 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§201 

appeared in Boeotia, to check Athenian progress there. It won 
a partial victory at Tanagra (map after page 98), — the first 
real battle between the two states, — but immediately retreated 
into the Peloponnesus. The Athenians at once reappeared in 
the field, crushed the Thebans in a great battle at Oenophyta^ 
and became masters of all Boeotia. At the same time FJiocis 
and Locris allied themselves to Athens, so that she seemed in 
a fair way to extend her land empire over all central Greece, — 
to which she now held the two gates, Thermopylae and the 
passes of the isthmus. A little later Achaea, in the Pelo- 
ponnesus itself, was added to the Athenian league. 

The activity of Athens at this period is marvelous. It 
is impossible even to mention the many instances of her 
matchless energy and splendid daring for the few years after 
460, while the empire was at its height. For one instance : 
just when Athens' hands were fullest in Egypt and in the 
siege of Aegina, Corinth tried a diversion by invading the 
territory of Megara. Athens did not recall a man. She armed 
the youths and the old men past age of service, and repelled 
the invaders. The Corinthians, stung by shame, made a sec- 
ond, more determined attempt, and were again repulsed with 
great slaughter. It was at this time, too, that the city com- 
pleted her fortifications, by building the Lorig Walls from 
Athens to her ports (maps, pages 180 and 189). These walls 
were 30 feet high and 12 feet thick. They made Athens abso- 
lutely safe from a siege, so long as she kept her supremacy on 
the sea ; and they added to the city a large open space where 
the country people might take refuge in case of invasion. 

201. Loss of the Land Empire. — How one city could carry 
on all these activities is almost beyond comprehension. But 
the resources of Athens were severely strained, and a sudden 
series of stunning blows well-nigh exhausted her. The expedi- 
tion to Egypt had at first been brilliantly successful,^ but un- 
foreseen disaster followed, and the 250 ships and the whole 

1 Athenian success here would have shut Persia off completely from the 
Mediterranean, and so from all possible contact with Europe. 



I 



§203] THE POWER OF ATHENS 199 

army in Egypt were lost.^ This stroke would have annihilated 
any other Greek state, and it was followed by others. Megara, 
which had itself invited an Athenian garrison, now treacher- 
ously massacred it and joined the Peloponnesian league. A 
Spartan army then entered Attica through Megara; and, at 
the same moment, Euboea burst into revolt. All Boeotia, too, 
except Plataea, fell away. The oligarchs won the upper hand 
in its various cities, and joined themselves to Sparta. 

202. The Thirty Years* Truce. — The activity and skill of 
Pericles saved Attica and Euboea; but the inland possessions 
and alliances were for the most part lost, and in 445 b.c. a 
Thirty Years^ Truce was concluded with Sparta. A little be- 
fore this, the long war with Persia had closed. 

For fifteen years Athens had almost unbroken peace. Then 
the truce between Sparta and Athens was broken, and the 
great Peloponnesian War began (§§ 241 ff.). That struggle 
ruined the power of Athens and the promise of Greece. There- 
fore, before entering upon its story, we will stop here for a 
survey of Greek civilization at this period of its highest glory, 
in Athens, its chief center. 

For Further Reading. — Specially suggested: Davis' Headings, 
Vol. I, Nos. 73-75 (4 pages) ; Bury, 352-363. Additional : Cox's Athe- 
nian Empire, and the opening chapters of Grant's Greece in the Age of 
Pericles and of Abbott's Pericles. 

THE EMPIRE AND THE IMPERIAL CITY IN PEACE 

203. Three Forms of Greatness. — Athens had great material power 
and a high political development and wonderful intellectual greatness. The 
last is what she especially stands for in history. But the first two topics 
have already been partly discussed, and may be best disposed of here 
before the most important one is taken up. 

A. Military Strength 

The Athens of the fifth century was a great state in a higher sense 
than most of the kingdoms of the Middle Ages. . . . For the space of a 

1 Special report. 



200 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§204 

half century her power was quite on a par with that of Persia, . . . and 
the Athenian Empire is the true precursor of those of Macedonia and 
Borne. — Holm, II, 259. 

204. Material Power. — The last real chance for a united 
Hellas passed away when Athens lost control of central Greece. 
But at the moment the loss of land empire did not seem to 
lessen Athens' strength. She had saved her sea empire, and 
consolidated it more firmly than ever. A7id, for a genera- 
tion more, the Greeks of that empire were the leaders of the loorld 
in power, as in culture. They had proved themselves more than 
a match for Persia. The mere magic of the Athenian name 
sufficed to keep Carthage from renewing her attack upon the 
Sicilian Greeks. The Athenian colonies in Thrace easily held 
in check the rising Macedonian kingdom. Rome, which three 
centuries later was to absorb Hellas into her world-empire, was 
still a barbarous village on the Tiber bank. In the middle of 
the fifth century B.C. the center of power in the world was impe- 
rial Athens. 

205. Population. — The cities of the empire counted some 
three millions of people. The number seems small to us ; but 
it must be kept in mind that the population of the world was 
much smaller then than now, and that the Athenian empire wa? 
made up of cultured, wealthy, progressive communities. 

To be sure, slaves made a large fraction of this population. 
Attica itself contained about one tenth of the inhabitants of the 
whole empire, perhaps 300,000 people (about as many as live 
in Minneapolis). Of these, one fourth were slaves, and a 
sixth were aliens. This left some 175,000 citizens, of whom 
perhaps 35,000 were men fit for soldiers. Outside Attica, 
there were 75,000 more citizens, — the cleruchs (§ 148), whom 
Pericles had sent to garrison outlying parts of the empire. 

206. Colonies. — The cleruchs, unlike other Greek colonists, 
kept all the rights of citizenship. They had their own local 
Assemblies, to manage the affairs of each colony. But they kept 
also their enrollment in the Attic demes and could vote upon 
the affairs of Athens and of the empire — though not unless 



§ 208] THE POWER OF ATHENS 201 

they came to Athens in person. They were mostly from the 
poorer classes, and were induced to go out to the new settlements 
by the gift of lands sufficient to raise them at least to the 
class of hoplites (§ 137). Rome copied this plan a century 
later. Otherwise, the world was not to see again so liberal a form 
of colonization until the United States of America began to 
organize " Territories^ 

207. Revenue. — The empire was rich, and the revenues of 
the government were large, for those days. Athens drew a 
yearly income of about four hundred talents ($400,000 in our 
values) from her Thracian mines and from the port dues and 
the taxes on alien merchants. The tribute from the subject 
cities amounted to $600,000. This tribute was fairly assessed, 
and it bore lightly upon the prosperous Greek communities. 
Tfie Asiatic Greeks paid only one sixth as much as they had 

formeyiy paid Persia; and the tax was much less than it would 
have cost the cities merely to defend themselves against 
pirates, had Athenian protection been removed. 

Indeed, the whole amount drawn from the subject cities 
would not keep one hundred ships manned and equipped for a 
year, to say nothing of building them. When we remember 
the standing navy in the Aegean and the great armaments that 
Athens sent repeatedly against Persia, it is plain that she con- 
tinued to bear her full share of the imperial burden. She kept 
her empire because she did not rob her dependencies — as 
most empires had done, and were to do for two thousand 
years longer. 

B. Government 

208. Steps in Development. — Seventy years had passed be- 
tween the reforms of Clisthenes and the truce with Sparta. 
The main steps of progress in government were five. 

The office of General had grown greatly in importance. 
The Assembly had extended its authority to all matters ol 
government, in practice as well as in theory. 
Jury courts (§ 211, below) had gained importance. 



202 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§208 

Tlie poorest citizens (§ 152) had been made eligible to 
office. 

Tlie state had begun to pay its citizens for public services. 




Map of Athens, with some structures of the Roman period. — The term 
" Stoa," which appears so often in this map, means "porch" or portico. 
These porticoes were inclosed by columns, and their fronts along the 
Agora formed a succession of colonnades. Only a few of the famous build- 
ings can be shown in a map like this. The " Agora " was the great public 
square, or open market place, surrounded by shops and porticoes. It was 
the busiest spot in Athens, the center of the commercial and social life of 
the city, where men met their friends for business or for pleasure. 

The constitution was not made over new at any one moment 
within this period, as it had been earlier, at the time of Solon 
and of Clisthenes. Indeed, the change was more in the spirit 
of the people than in the written law. The first three steps 
mentioned (the increased power of the Generals and of the As- 



§ 210] GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS, HER EMPIRE 203 

sembly and jury courts) came altogether from a gradual change 
in practice. The other two steps had been brought about by 
piecemeal legislation. The guiding spirit in most of this de- 
velopment was Pericles. 

209. " Generals " and "Leaders of the People." — When Themis- 
tocles put through important measures, like the improve- 
ment of the Piraeus (§ 185), he held the office of Archon ; 
but when Oimon or Pericles guided the policy of Athens, 
they held the office of General. The Generals had become 
the administrators of the government. It was usually they who 
proposed to the Assembly the levy of troops, the building of 
ships, the raising of money, the making of peace or war. 
Then, when the Assembly decided to do any of these 
things, the Generals saw to the execution of them. TJiey were 
subject absolutely to the control of the Assembly , but they had 
great opportunities to influence it : they could call special 
meetings at will, and they had the right to speak whenever 
they wished. 

But any man had full right to try to persuade the Assembly, 
whether he held office or not ; and the more prominent speakers 
and leaders were known as "leaders of the people" (dema- 
gogues). Even though he held no office, a "leader of the 
people," trusted by the popular party, exercised a greater 
authority than any General could without that trust. To 
make things work smoothly, therefore, it was desirable that 
the Board of Generals should contain the "lea^der of the 
people " for the time being. Pericles was recognized " dema- 
gogue " for many years, and was usually elected each year 
president of the Board of Generals. 

210. The Assembly ^ met on the Pnyx,^ a sloping hill whose 
side formed a kind of natural theater. There were forty 
regular meetings each year, and many special meetings. Thus 
a patriotic citizen was called upon to give at least one day a 
week to the state in this matter of political meetings alone. 

1 On the Assembly, there is an admirable treatment in Grant's Age q^ 
Pericles, 141-149. 2 gee plan of Athens, page 202. 



204 THE GREEKS — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§211 

The Assembly had become thoroughly democratic and had 
made great gains in power since Clisthenes' time. All public 
officials had become its obedient servants. The Council of Five 
Hundred (§ 152) existed not to guide it, but to do its bidding. 
The Generals were its creatures, and might he deposed by it any 
day. No act of government was too small or too great for it to 
deal with. The Assembly of Athens was to the greatest empire of the 
world in that day all, and more than all, that a JSfeic England town 
meeting ever was to its little town. It was as if the citizens of Boston 
or Chicago were to meet day by day to govern the United States, 
and, at the same time, to attend to all their own local affairs. 

211. "Juries" of citizens were introduced by Solon, and 
their importance became fully developed under Pericles. Six 
thousand citizens were chosen by lot each year for this duty, 
from those who offered themselves for the service — mostly 
the older men past the age for active work. One thousand 
of these were held in reserve. The others were divided into 
ten jury courts of five hundred men each. 

The Assembly turned over the trial of officials to the 
juries. With a view to this duty, each juror took an oath 
" above all things to favor neither tyranny nor oligarchy, nor 
in any way to prejudice [injure] the sovereignty of the people." 
The juries also settled all disputes between separate cities 
of the empire ; they were courts of appeal for impoi'tant 
cases between citizens in a subject city; and they were the 
ordinary law courts for Athenians. An Athenian jury 
was " both judge and jury " : it decided each case by a ma^ 
jority vote, and there was no appeal from its verdict. 

Thus these large bodies had not even the check that our small juries 
have in trained judges to guide them. No doubt they gave many wrong 
verdicts. Passion and pity and bribery all interfered, at times, with even- 
handed justice ; but, on the whole, the system worked astonishingly well. 
In particular, any citizen of a subject city was sure to get redress from 
these courts, if he had been wronged by an Athenian officer. And rich 
criminals found it quite as hard to bribe a majority of 500 jurors as such 
offenders find it among us to " influence " ''ome judge to shield them with 
legal technicalities. 



§ 213] POLITICAL ABILITY 205 

212. State Pay. — Since these courts had so great weight, 
and since they tried political offenders, it was essential that 
they should not fall wholly into the hands of the rich. To 
prevenlj this, Pericles introduced a small payment for jury 
duty. The amount, three obols a day (about nine cents), would 
furnish a day's food for one person in Athens, but it would not 
support a family. 

Afterward, Pericles extended public payment to other po- 
litical services. Aristotle (a Greek writer a century or so 
later) says that some 20,000 men — over half the whole body 
of citizens — were constantly in the pay of the state. Half 
of this number were soldiers, in garrisons or in the field. But, 
besides the 6000 jurymen, there were the 500 Councilmen, 
700 city officials,^ 700 more officials representing Athens 
throughout the empire, and many inferior state servants ; so 
that always from a third to a fourth of the citizens were in the 
civil service? 

Pericles has been accused sometimes of " corrupting " the Athenians 
by the introduction of payment. But there is no proof that the Atheni- 
ans were corrupted ; and, further, such a system was inevitable when 
the democracy of a little city became the master of an empire. It was 
quite as natural and proper as is the payment of congressmen and judges 
with us. 

213. Athenian Political Ability. — Many of the offices in 
Athens could be held only once by the same man, so that each 
Athenian citizen could count upon serving his city at some time 
in almost every office. Politics was his occupation; office- 
holding, his regular business. 

Such a system could not have worked without a high 
average of intelligence in the people. It did work well. 
With all its faults, the rule of Athens in Greece was 
vastly superior to the rude despotism that followed under 

1 Overseers of weights and measures, harbor inspectors, and so on. 

2 Civil service is a term used in contrast to military service. Our post- 
masters are among the civil servants of the United States, as a city engineer 
or a fireman is in the city civil service. 



200 THE ORKEKH — ATHENIAN LEADERSHIP [§214 

Sparta, or the anaroJiy under Thobes ('sS 2oo, 207;. It gave 
to a large }jart of thie Helleuio world a peace arjd security 
rjever enjoyed })cA'<)r('., or ai'Utr, until the rise of Roman power. 
AthenH itBclf, moreover, wan goverrjcd better and more gently 
than oligarchic citicH like Corinth. 

" Th'i Al.h<;niafj d*;ifjocracy rnafi^i a ifn-/<i.U;r iiurnb':r of citiz(;nH fit Uj 
UHf; pow<;r l}ia/i f;oijlfJ br; madf; fit by any othf^r Hystcm. . . . The. 
AHK«;fnbJy waH an aHWjinbly of cAUzcjih — of average (Ai'm-HH wilhout 
Hiftin^^ or wjleotion ; but it. wan an aHH<;rnbly of oitizenn among whom the 
polUwil (ivcratjc, nlood hif/hf.r than it <'X(',r did in any othar Htatc. . . . 
Thf; Atlj«;nian, by constantly h(;aring (jiiCHtif^nH of foreign policy and 
domcHtio afltniniHtratJon argiicd by tlif; gn;aU;Ht oralorH the world ever 
Haw, rcceiv«td a political training which nothing eliie in the history of 
nianki/id Iijih b<;«;/j fount] to oqual." ' 

214. The Final Verdict upon the Empire. — It is easy to see 
that the Athenian Kyst(;m was im[jerfect, tried by our standard 
of governifjent ; biit it is more to the point to see that it was 
an advarif^f; over anything evo.r b'dore attemj)ted. 

It is to be ro,grette/l that Athens difi not crnitinue to admit, 
aliens to citi/finsliij), as in CJlisthenes' day. It is to be 
regretted that she did not extend to thf; men oi' her subject 
cities tliat sort of citizenship which slie did leave to her 
cleruchs. Hut tljc im[>ortant thing is, tliat she had moved 
farther than Iiad any otlier state up to this time. The afjmis- 
sion of aliens by (jlistlienes and tlie cleruch citizenship f§ 200) 
were notable advances. 77Ar> hroadoM 'policy of an wje ought not 
to he, condc/m/fUid <ih ndrrom. 

215. Parties: A Summary. — A fow wfudM will n-.view party hl»- 
Uiiy up to tfie IftaderHliip of l'<;rioi<;H. All faf;tioiiH in Athenw ha^J united 
patriotically agairiHt TerHJa, and afterward in fortifying the city ; but the 
bricif f',ra of good f(;eling was followed by a niucwal of party Htrifc. The 
AriHtocratH rallied around Cinion, while the two wingH of the democrata 
were led at fir«t, aH before the invaBion, by ArlstidcH and Themifltocles. 



1 Krfjernan'H Fndcral fJovfirnrn'tnt. \Utn<\ a Hpicy paragraph in Wheelor'H 
Alexander the Great, IIG, 117. 



§ 216] PERICLES 207 

ThomiHtocleH was ostracized, and his friend Kphialtes became the leader 
of the extreme democrats. When Epiiialtes was assassinated (§ 196), 
Pericles stepped into his place. 

216. Pericles. — The aristocratic party had been ruined by 
its pro-Spartan policy (§§ 107, 198). The two divisions of the 
democrats reunited, arid for a quarter of a century Peric^los 
was in practice as absolute as a dictator. Thucydides calls 
Athens during this period " a democracy in name, ruled in 
reality by its ablest citizen." 

Tericles belonged to the ancient nobility of Athens, but 
to families that had always taken the side of the people. His 
mother was the niece of Clisthenes the reformer, and liis 
father had impeached Miltiades (§ 109), so that the enmity 
between Cimon and Pericles was hereditaiy. The supremacy 
of Pericles rested in no way upon the flatt(iring arts of later 
poyjular leaders. His }>roud r(;serve verged on haughtiness, 
and he was rarely seen in public. He scorned to show emotion. 
ilis stately gravity and unruiHed calm were styled Olympian 
l')y his admirers — who added that, like Zeus, he could on 
occasion overbear opposition by the majestic thunder of liis 
oratory. 

The great authority of ]*(;ri(d(!S came from no public oflicje. 
He was elected (ien(u*al, it is true, fifteen times, and in the 
board of ten generals, he had far more weight tliarj any other 
had; but this was because of Ins unoj/icial position as "leader 
of the p(iO];>h;" (% 209). (ieneral or JK)t, }ut was inaMcr only so 
long as he could carry tin; Asscunbly witli him ; and lie, was com- 
pelled to defend each of his measurcis against all who (;hos(; to 
attack it. The long and st(!ady confid(;n(!e given him honors 
the j)eople of Athens no less than it honors Peric^les hirns(df. 
His noblest praise is that which he cl;iim(;d for himself 
upon his deathbed, — that, with all his authority, and desfiite 
the bitterness of party strife, "no Athenian has had to i>ut on 
mourning because of me.'' 

Pericles stat(;d his own j>olicy clearly. As to the emi)ir(;, 
he sought to make Athens at once the ruler and the teacher of 



208 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 21'} 

Hellas, — the political and intellectual center. Within the 
city itself, he wished the people to rule, not merely in theory, 
but in fact, as the best means of training them for high 
responsibilities. 

C. Intellectual and Artistic Athens 

217. The True Significance of Athens. — After all, in politics and 
war, Hellas has had superiors. Her true service to mankind and her 
imperishable glory lie in her literature, her philosophy, and her art. It 
was in the Athens of Pericles that these forms of Greek life developed most 
fully, and this fact makes the real meaning of that city in history. 

218. Architecture and Sculpture. — Part of the policy of Peri- 
cles was to adorn Athens from the surplus revenues of the 
empire. The injustice of this is plain; but the result was to 
make the city the most beautiful in the world, so th?t, ever 
since, her mere ruins have enthralled the admiration of men. 
Greek art was just reaching its perfection ; and everywhere in 
Athens, under the charge of the greatest artists of this great- 
est artistic age, arose temples, colonnades, porticoes, — inimi- 
table to this day. 

" No description can give anything but a very inadequate idea of the 
splendor, the strength, the beauty, which met the eye of the Athenian, 
whether he walked round the fortificatious, or through the broad streets 
of the Piraeus, or along the Long Walls, or in the shades of the Acad- 
emy, or amidst the tombs of the Ceramicus ; whether he chaffered in the 
market place, or attended assemblies in the Pnyx, or loitered in one of 
the numerous porticoes, or watched the exercises in the Gymnasia, or lis- 
tened to music in the Odeum or plays in the theaters, or joined the throng 
of worshipers ascending to the great gateway of the Acropolis. And this 
magnificence was not the result of centuries of toil ; it was the work of 
ffty years. . . . Athens became a vast workshop, in which artisans of 
every kind found employment, all, in their various degrees, contributing 
to the execution of the plans of the master minds, Phidias, Ictinus, Calli- 
crates, Mnesicles, and others." — Abbott, Pericles, 303-308. 

The center of this architectural splendor was the ancient 
citadel of the Acropolis. That massive rock now became the 



§218] ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 209 




210 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§219 

" holy hill." No longer needed as a fortification, it was crowned 
with white marble, and devoted to religion and art. It was 
inaccessible except on the west. Here was built a stately 
stairway of sixty marble steps, leading to a series of noble 
colonnades and porticoes {the Propylaea) of surpassing beauty. 
From these the visitor emerged upon the leveled top of the 
Acropolis, to find himself surrounded by temples and statues, 
any one of which alone might make the fame of the proudest 




The Acropolis To-day. 

modern city. Just in front of the entrance stood the colossal 
bronze statue of Athene the Champion, whose broad spear point, 
glittering in the sun, was the first sign of the city to the mar- 
iner far out at sea. On the right of the entrance, and a little 
to the rear, was the temple of the Wingless Victory^; and near 
the center of the open space rose the larger structures of the 
Erechtheum ^ and the Parthenon. 

219. The Parthenon (" maiden's chamber ") was the temple 
of the virgin goddess Athene. It remains absolutely peerless 
in its loveliness among the buildings of the world. It was in 
the Doric style,^ and of no great size, — only some 100 feet by 

1 See the illustration on page 159. 

2 A temple to Erechtheus, an ancestral god of Attica. See page 212. 

8 See § 154 for explanation of this and other terms used in this description. 
See also pages 156, 158, 212, 221, for illustrations of the Parthenon. 



§219] 



THE PARTHENON 



211 



250, while the marble pillars supporting its low pediment rose 
only 34 feet from their base of three receding steps. The ef- 
fect was due, not to the sublimity and grandeur of vast masses, 
but to the perfection of proportion, to exquisite beauty of line, 
and to the delicacy and profusion of ornament. On this struc- 
ture, indeed, was lavished without stint the highest art of the 




Propylaea of the Acropolis To-day. 



art capital of all time. The fifty life-size and colossal statues 
in the pediments, and the four thousand square feet of smaller 
reliefs in the frieze were all finished with perfect skill, even 
in the unseen parts. The frieze represents an Athenian pro- 
cession, carrying offerings to the patron goddess Athene at 
the greatest religious festival of Athens. Nearly 500 different 
figures were carved upon this frieze.^ As with all Greek tem- 

1 These reliefs are now for the most part in the British Museum and are 
often referred to as the Elgin Marbles, from the fact that Lord Elgin secured 
them, shortly after 1800, for the English government. The student can judge 
of the original position of part of the sculpture on the building from the illus- 
tration of the Parthenon on page 221. The frieze within the colonnade 



212 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 220 

pies, the bands of stone above the columns were painted in 
brilliant reds and blues ; and the faces of the sculptures were 
tinted in lifelike hues. 

About 230 years ago, when the Turks held Athens, they used the 
Parthenon as a powder house. An enemy's cannon ball exploded the 
magazine, blowing the temple into ruins, much as we see them to-day. 




Ebechtheum (foreground) and Parthenon. This view gives the contrast 
between the delicacy of the Ionic style and the simple dignity of the Doric. 
Cf. § 154. 

220. Phidias. — The ornamentation of the Parthenon, within 
and without, was cared for by Phidias and his pupils. Phidias 
still ranks as the greatest of sculptors.^ Much of the work on 
the Acropolis he merely planned, but the great statues of 

(§ 154) cannot be shown in such pictures. It was a band of relief, about four 
feet in width, running entirely around the temple. 

1 Phidias has been rivaled, if at all, only by his pupil, Praxiteles. The 
Hermes of Praxiteles is one of the few great works of antiquity that survive 
to us ; and of his Satyr we have a famous copy in Rome, which plays a part 
in Hawthorne's novel, The Marble Faun See pages 227, 254. 



5220] 



THE PARTHENON 



213 



Athene were his special work. The bronze statue has already 
been mentioned. Besides this, there was, within the temple^ 
an even more glorious statue in gold and ivory, smaller than 
the other, but still five or six times larger than life.^ Profes- 
sor Mahaffy has said of all this Parthenon sculpture : — 

" The beauty and perfection of all the invisible parts are such that the 
cost of labor and money must have been enormous. There is no show 




Figures from the Parthenon Frieze. 

whatever for much of this extraordinary finish, which can only be seen 
^)y going on the roof or by opening a wall. Yet the religiousness of the 
Unseen work 2 has secured that what is seen shall be perfect with no 
ordinary perfection." 

1 These two works divide the honor of Phidias' great fame with his Zeus 
at Olympia, which, in the opinion of the ancients, surpassed all other sculpture 
L*i grandeur. Phidias said that he planned the latter work, thinking of 
Flomer's Zeus, at the nod of whose ambrosial locks Olympus trembled. 

2 Compare Longfellow's lines, — 

" In the older days of art, 
Builders wrought, with utmost care, 
Each obscure and unseen part, — 
For the gods see everywhere." 



214 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 221 



221. The Drama — In the age of Pericles, the chief form of 
poetry became the tragic drama — the highest development of 

Greek literature. As 

the tenth century was 
the epic age, and the 
seventh and sixth 
the lyric (§ 155)^ so 
the fifth century be- 
gins the dramatic 
period. 

The drama began in 
the songs and dances 
of a chorus in honor 
of Dionysus, god of 
wine, at the spring 
festival of flowers and 
at the autumn vintage 
festival. The leader 
of the chorus came at 
length to recite stories, 
between the songs. 
Thespis (§ 146) at 
Athens, in the age of 
Pisistratus, had de- 
veloped this leader 
into an actor, — apart 
from the chorus and 
carrying on dialogue 
with it. Now Aeschy- 
lus added another 
actor, and his youngei 
rival, Sophocles, a 
third.^ Aeschylus, Sophocles, and their successor, Euripides, 
are the three greatest Greek dramatists. Together they pro- 

1 The Greek tragedy never permitted more than three actors upon the 
Stage at one time. The Greek drama cannot be compared easily with the 




Sophocles — a portrait-statue, now in the 
Late ran Museum at Rome. 



222] 



THE GREEK THEATER 



215 



duced some two hundred plays, of which thirty-one survive. 
Their flays were all tragedies. 

Comedy also grew out of the worship of the wine god, — not 
from the great religious festivals, however, but from the rude 
village merrymakings. Even upon the stage, comedy kept 
traces of this rude origin in occasional coarseness; and it was 




Theater of Dionysus — present condition. 

sometimes misused, to abuse men like Pericles and Socrates. 
Still, its great master, Aristophanes, for his wit and genius, 
must always remain one of the bright names in literature. 
222. The Theater. — Every Greek city had its "theaters." 
A theater was a semicircular arrangement of rising seats, 
often cut into a hillside, with a small stage at the open side of 
the circle for the actors. There was no inclosed building, ex- 
cept sometimes a few rooms for the actors, and there was 



modern. Sophocles and Shakespeare differ somewhat as the Parthenon differs 
from a vast cathedral. In a Greek play the scene never changed, and all the 
action had to be such as could have taken place in one day. That is, the 
"unities" of time and place were strictly preserved, while the small num- 
ber of actors made it easy to maintain also a " unity of action." 



216 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 223 

none of the gorgeous stage scenery whicli has become a chief 
feature of our theaters. Neither did the Greek theater 
run every night. Performances took place at only two periods 
in the year — at the spring and autumn festivals to Diony- 
sus — for about a week each season ; and the performance of 
course had to be in the daytime. 

The great Tlieater of Dionysus, in Athens, was on the south- 
east slope of the Acropolis — the rising seats, cut in a semicircle 
into the rocky bluff, looking forth, beyond the stage, to the hills 
of southern Attica and over the blue waters of the Aegean. 
It could seat almost the whole free male population.^ 

Pericles secured from the public treasury the admission fee 
to the Theater for each citizen who chose to ask for it. This 
use of " theater money " was altogether different from the 
payment of officers and jurors. It must be kept in mind 
that the Greek stage was the modern pulpit and press iu 
one. The practice of free admission was designed to advance 
religious and intellectual training, rather than to give amuse- 
ment. Itivas a kind of public education for grown-up people. 

223. Oratory was highly developed. Among no other people 
has public speaking been so important and so effective. Its 
special home was Athens. For almost two hundred years, 
from Themistocles to Demosthenes (§ 272), great statesmen 
swayed the Athenian state by the power of sonorous and thrill- 
ing eloquence ; and the emotional citizens, day after day, packed 
the Pnyx to hang breathless for hours upon the persuasive lips 
of their leaders. The art of public speech was studied zeal- 
ously by all who hoped to take part in public affairs. 

Unhappily, Pericles did not preserve his orations. The one 
quoted below (§ 229) seems to have been recast by Thucydides 
in his own style. But fortunately we do still have many of 
the orations of Demosthenes, of the next century ; and from 
them we can understand how the union of fiery passion, and 

1 The stone seats were not carved out of the hill until somewhat later. 
During the age of Pericles, the men of Athens sat on the ground, or on stools 
which they brought with them, all over the hillside. 



§225] 



HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY 



^1^ 



convincing logic, and polished beauty of language, made oratory 
rank with the drama and with art as the great means of public 
education for Athenians. 

224. History Prose literature now appears, with history 

as its leading form. The three great historians of the period are 
Herodotus, Thucydides, 
and Xenophon. For charm 
in story-telling they have 
never been excelled. 
Herodotus was a native of 
Halicarnassus (a city of 
A.sia Minor). He traveled 
widely, lived long at 
Athens as the friend of 
Pericles, and finally in 
Italy composed his great 
History of the Persian 
Wars, with an introduc- 
tion covering the world's 
history up to that event. 
Thucydides, an Athenian 
general, wrote the history 
of the Peloponnesian War 
(§§ 241 ff.) in which he 
took part. Xenophon be- 
longs rather to the next 
century. He also was an 

Athenian. He completed the story of the Peloponnesian 
War, and gave us, with other works, the Anabasis^ sua. account 
of the expedition of the Ten Thousand Greeks through the 
Persian empire in 401 b.c. (§ 257). 

225. Philosophy.^ — The age of Pericles saw also a rapid 
development in philosophy, — and this movement, too, had 
Athens for its most important home. Anaxagoras of Ionia, 

1 This section can best be read in class, and talked over. It may well be 
preceded by a reading of § 156 upon the earlier Greek philosophy. 




Thucydidbs. 

A portrait bust ; now in the Capitoline 
Museum at Rome. 



218 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 223 

the friend of Pericles, taught that the ruling principle in the 
universe was Mind: "In the beginning all things were chaos; 
then came Intelligence, and set all in order." He also tried to 
explain comets and other strange natural phenomena, which 
had been looked upon as miraculous. 

But, like Democritus and Empedodes of the same period, 
Anaxagoras turned in the main from the old question of a 
fundamental principle to a new problem. The philosophers 
of the sixth century had tried to answer the question, — How 
did the universe come to be ? The philosophers of the age of 
Pericles asked mainly, — How does man know about the uni- 
verse ? That is, they tried to explain the working of the human 
mind. These early attempts at explanation were not very 
satisfactory, and so next came the Sophists, with a skeptical 
philosophy. Man, the Sophists held, cannot reach truth itself, 
but must be content to know only appearances. They taught 
rhetoric, and were the first of the philosophers to accept pay.^ 

Socrates, the founder of a new philosophy, is sometimes con- 
founded with the Sophists. Like them, he abandoned the 
attempt to understand the material universe, and ridiculed 
gently the attempted explanations of his friend, Anaxagoras. 
He took for his motto, " Know thyself,'^ and considered philoso- 
phy to consist in right thinking upon human conduct. True 
wisdom, he taught, is to know what is good and to do what is 
right; and he tried to make his followers see the difference 
between justice and injustice, temperance and intemperance, 
virtue and vice. 

Thus Socrates completes the circle of ancient philosophy. The whole 
development may be summed up briefly, as follows : — 

1. Thales and his followers (§ 156) tried to find out how the world came 
to be — out of what " first principle " it arose (water, fire, etc.). 

1 Thus these philosophers were accused of advertising for gain, to teach 
youth "how to make the worse appear the better reason," and the name 
"sophist'* received an evil significance. Many of the Sophists, however, 
Were brilliant thinkers, who did much to clear away old mental rubbish. The 
most famous were Gorgias, the rhetorician, a Sicilian Greek at Athens, and 
Ms pupil, Isocrates. 



1 



§ 227] SOCRATES 219 

2. Anaxagoras and his contemporaries tried to find out how man's 
mind could understand the outside world. (His teaching that 
mind was the real principle of the universe formed a natural 
step from 1 to 2.) 

8. The Sophists declared all search for such explanations a failure — 
beyond the power of the human mind. 

4. Socrates sought to know, not about the outside world at all, but 
about himself and his duties. 

226. The Man Socrates. — Socrates was a poor man, an artisan 
who carved little images of the gods for a living ; and he con- 
stantly vexed his wife, Xanthippe, by neglecting his trade, to 
talk in the market place. He wore no sandals, and dressed 
meanly. His large bald head and ugly face, with its thick 
lips and flat nose, made him good sport for the comic poets. 
His practice was to entrap unwary antagonists into public con- 
versation by asking innocent-looking questions, and then, by 
the inconsistencies of their answers, to show how shallow their 
opinions were. This proceeding afforded huge merriment to 
the crowd of youths who followed the bare-footed philosopher, and 
it made him bitter enemies among his victims. But his method 
of argument (which we still call "the Socratic method") was 
a permanent addition to our intellectual weapons; and his 
beauty of soul, his devotion to knowledge, and his largeness 
of spirit make him the greatest name in Greek history. When 
seventy years old (399 b.c.) he was accused of impiety and of 
corrupting the youth. He refused to defend himself in any 
ordinary way, and was therefore declared guilty. His accusers 
then proposed a death penalty. It was the privilege of the 
condemned man to propose any other penalty, and let the jury 
choose between the two. Instead of proposing a considerable 
fine, as his friends wished, Socrates said first that he really 
ought to propose that he be maintained in honor at the public 
expense, but, in deference to his friends' entreaties, he finally 
proposed a small fine. The angered jury, by a close vote, pro- 
nounced the death penalty. 

227. Socrates on Obedience to Law and on Immortality. — 
Socrates refused also to escape before the day for his execution* 



220 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 227 

Friends had made arrangements for his escape, but he answered 
their earnest entreaties by a playful discourse, of which the 
substance was, — " Death is no evil ; but for Socrates to ^ play 
truant,' and injure the laws of his country, would be an evil." 
After memorable conversations upon immortality, he drank 
the fatal hemlock with a gentle jest upon his lips.^ His 
execution is the greatest blot upon the intelligence of the 
Athenian democracy. 

It happened that the trial had taken place just before 
the annual sailing of a sacred ship to Delos to a festival of 
Apollo. According to Athenian law, no execution could take 
place until the return of this vessel. Thus for thirty days, 
Socrates remained in jail, conversing daily in his usual manner 
with groups of friends who visited him. Two of his disciples 
(Plato and Xenophon) have given us accounts of these talks. 
On the last day, the theme was immortality. Some of the friends 
fear that death may be an endless sleep, or that the soul, on 
leaving the body, may " issue forth like smoke . . . and vanish 
into nothingness." But Socrates comforts and consoles them, — 
convincing them, by a long day's argument, that the soul is 
immortal, and picturing the lofty delight he anticipates in 
applying his Socratic questionings to the heroes and sages of 
olden times, when he meets them soon in the abode of the 
blest. Then, just as the fatal hour arrives, one of the company 
(Crito) asks, ''In what way would you have us bury you?" 
Socrates rejoins : — 

" ' In any way you like : only you must first get hold of me, and take 
care that I do not walk away from you.' Then he turned to us, and 
added, with a smile : * I cannot make Crito believe that / am the same 
Socrates who has been talking with you. He fancies that I am another 
Socrates whom he will soon see a dead body — and he asks, How shall he 
bury me? I have spoken many words to show that I shall leave you and 
go to the joys of the blessed ; but these words, with which I comforted 
you, have had, I see, no effect upon Crito. And so I want you to be 

1 Special report: the trial and death of Socrates. See Plato's Apologj/t 
Xenophon's Memorahilia^ and other a^comits. 



§228] 



SUMMARY 



221 



surety for me now, as Crito was surety [bail] for me at my trial, — but 
with another sort of promise. For he promised the judges that I would 
remain ; but you must be my surety to him that I shall not remain. Then 
he will not be grieved when he sees merely my body burned or buried. I 
would not have him sorrow at my lot, or say, Thus we follow Socrates to 
the grave ; for false words such as these infect the soul. Be of good 
cheer, then, my dear Crito, and say that you are burying my body only — 
and do with that what is usual, or as you think best. ' " i 

228. Summary. — The amazing extent and intensity of Athenian 
culture overpower the imagination. With few exceptions, the 



^■j 




^^^HH 


HElipHH 


■ M 


^0^m:mp-^^ ^■-: - ^^H 




ffKm' ^m 



The Acropolis, as " restored " by Lambert. 

famous men mentioned in §§ 220-225 were Athenian citizens. 
In the fifth century B.C. that one city gave birth to more great 
men of the first rank, it has been said, than the whole world has 
ever produced in any other equal period of time. 

Artists, philosophers, and writers swarmed to Athens, also, 
from less-favored parts of Hellas ; for, despite the condemnation 
of Socrates, no other city in the world afforded such freedom 
of thought, and nowhere else was ability, in art or literature, 



1 Anecdotes of Socrates are given in DdkYis'Eeadings, Vol. I, Nos. 89-92. 



222 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§229 

so appreciated. The names that have been mentioned give 
but a faint impression of the splendid throngs of brilliant poets, 
artists, philosophers, and orators, who jostled each other in 
the streets of Athens. This, after all, is the best justification 
of the Athenian democracy. Abbott (History of Greece, II, 415), 
one of its sternest modern critics, is forced to exclaim, " Never 
before or since has life developed so richly as it developed in 
the beautiful city which lay at the feet of the virgin goddess." ^ 
229. The Tribute of Pericles to Athens. — The finest glorification 
of the Athenian spirit is contained in the great funeral oration 
delivered by Pericles over the Athenian dead, at the close of 
the second year of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides gives 
the speech and represents no doubt the ideas, if not the words, 
of the orator : — 

" And we have not forgotten to provide for our weary spirits many 
relaxations from toil. We have our regular games and sacrifices through- 
out the year ; at home the style of our life is refined, and the delight 
which we daily feel in all these things helps to banish melancholy. Be- 
cause of the greatness of our city, the fruits of the whole earth flow in 
upon us ; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as of 
our own. . . . 

" And in the matter of education, whereas our adversaries from early 
youth are always undergoing laborious exercises which are to make them 
brave, we live at ease, and yet are equally ready to face the perils which 
they face. ... If then we prefer to meet danger with a light heart but 
without laborious training, and with a courage which is gained by habit 
and not enforced by law, are we not greatly the gainers ? 

*' We are lovers of the beautiful^ yet simple in our tastes; and we culti- 
vate the mind without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for 
talk and ostentation, but when there is a real use for it. To avow 
poverty with us is no disgrace ; the true disgrace is in doing nothing to 
avoid it. An Athenian citizen does not neglect the state because he 
takes care of his own household ; and even those of us who are engaged 
in business have a very fair idea of politics. We alone regard a man 
who takes no interest in public affairs, not as a harmless, but as a use- 
less character. . . . 

1 The patron deity of Athens was Pallas Athene, the virgin goddess, whose 
temple, the Parthenon, crowned the Acropolis. 



§230] LIMITATIONS 22S 

'* In the hour of trial Athens alone is superior to the report of her. 
No enemy who comes against her is indignant at the reverses which he 
sustains at the hands of such a city ; no subject complains that his 
masters are unworthy of him. And we shall assuredly not be without 
witnesses. There are mighty monuments of our power which will make 
us the wonder of this and of succeeding ages. . . . For we have com- 
pelled every land and every sea to open a path for our valor, and have 
everywhere planted eternal memorials of our friendship and of our 
enmity. . . . 

' ' To sum up : I say that Athens is the school of Hellas, and that the 
individual Athenian in his own person seems to have the power of adapt- 
ing himself to the most varied forms of action with the utmost versatility 
and grace. . . . 

'"'• I would have you day by day fix your eyes upon the greatness of 
Athens, until you become filled with the love of her ; and when you are 
impressed by the spectacle of her glory, reflect that this empire has been 
acquired by men who knew their duty and had the courage to do it, and 
who in the hour of conflict had the fear of dishonor always present to 
them. . . ." 

230. Three limitations in Greek culture must be noted. 

a. It rested necessarily on slavery, and consequently could 
not honor labor, as modern culture at least tries to do. The 
main business of the citizen was government and war. 
Trades and commerce were left largely to the free non-citizen 
class, and unskilled hand labor was performed mainly by 
slaves. As a rule, it is true, this slavery was not harsh. In 
Athens, ordinarily, the slaves were hardly to be distinguished 
from the poorer citizens. They were frequently Greeks, of 
the same speech and culture as their masters. In some ways, 
this made their lot all the harder to bear; and there was 
always the possibility of cruelty. In the mines, even in 
Attica, the slaves were killed off brutally by merciless 
hardships. 

b. Greek culture was for males only. It is not probable that 
the wife of Phidias or of Thucydides could read. The women 
of the working classes, especially in the country, necessarily 
mixed somewhat with men in their work. But among the 
well-to-do, women had lost the freedom of the simple and rude 



224 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 230 

society of Homer's time, without gaining much in return. Ex- 
cept at Sparta, where physical training was thought needful 




Women at their Toilet. — From a vase painting. 

for them, they passed a secluded life even at home, in sepa- 
rate women's apartments. They had no public interests, ap 




Women at their Toilet. — The rest of the vase painting shown abore. 

peared rarely on the streets, and never met their husbands' 
friends. At best, they were only higher domestic servants. 
The chivalry of the mediaeval knight toward woman and the 



230] 



LIMITATIONS 



225 



love of the modern gentleman for his wife were equally un- 
thinkable by the best Greek society. 

The rule is merely emphasized by its one exception. No 
account of the Athens of Pericles should omit mention of 
Aspasia. She was a native of Miletus, and had come to 
Athens as an adventuress. Many other high-spirited girls no 
doubt did the like, in inevitable rebellion against the shame- 
ful bondage of Greek custom, — but only to fall into a life more 
shameful. But Aspasia won the love of Pericles. Since she 
was not an Athenian 
citizen he could not 
marry her ; but, until 
his death, he lived 
with her in all re- 
spects as his wife — a 
union not grievously 
offensive to Greek 
ideas. The dazzling 
wit and beauty of 
Aspasia made his 
home the focus of the 
intellectual life of Athens. Anaxagoras, Socrates, Phidias, 
Herodotus, — the charming group of brilliant friends of Peri- 
cles, — were her friends also, and delighted in her conversa- 
tion. Pericles consulted her on the most important public 
matters. But she is the only woman who need be named in 
Greek history after the time of Sappho and Corinna (§ 155). 

c. The most intellectual Greeks of that age had not thought 
of finding out the truths of nature by experiment. The an- 
cients had only such knowledge of the world about them as 
they had chanced upon, or such as they could attain by 
observation of nature as she showed herself to them. To ask 
questions, and make nature answer them by systematic experi- 
ment, is a method of reaching knowledge which belongs only 
to recent times. But, before the Greeks, men had reached 
about all the mastery over nature that was possible without 




Greek Women at their Music. 
From a vase painting. 



226 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 230 



that method. The average Athenian probably excelled the 
average American in brain power, and the Greek mind per- 
formed wonders in literature and art and philosophy ; hut it 
did little to advance man's power over nature. 

This limitation should not be overrated. We sometimes 
think of civilization as consisting mainly in material comforts. 

The Greeks knew little of 
such things. It is none 
too easy for us to really 
picture a world without 
railways, or telegraphs, or 
electric lights, or gas, or 
coal, or refrigerator cars 
to bring to our breakfast 
table the fruits of distant 
lands. But, to make the 
Greek world at all real to 
us, we must peel off from 
our world much more than 
this. We must think of 
even the best houses with- 
out plumbing — or drains 
of any sort; beds with- 
out sheets or springs; 
rooms without fire ; travel- 
ing without bridges ; shoes 
without stockings; clothes 
without buttons, or even a 
hook and eye. The Greek had to tell time without a watch, 
and to cross seas without a compass. He was civilized with- 
out being what we should call " comfortable." But, perhaps 
all the more, he felt keenly the beauty of sky and hill and 
temple and statue and the human form.^ 

1 Myron was a contemporary of Phidias. He excelled in representing the 
human body in action. 

2 This passage is mostly condensed from a paragraph in Zimmern's Greek 
Commonioealth. 




The Disk Throwkr. 
After Myron. 1 Now in the Vatican. 



[§231 



MORAL IDEALS 



227 



In one most important respect, however, this lack of con- 
trol over nature was a serious lack. Without modern scien- 
tific knowledge, and modern machinery, it has never been 
possible for man to produce wealth fast enough so that many 
could take sufficient leisure for refined and graceful living. 
Even with us, this ability is so new that we have not yet 
learned how to divide the new wealth properly; but we feel 
sure that it is going to be 
done. With the Greeks, it 
could not be done. There 
was too little to go round. 
The civilization of the 
few rested necessarily upon 
slavery. This third limi- 
tation (c) was the cause of 
the first (a). 

231. The moral side of 
Greek culture falls some- 
what short of the in- 
tellectual side. The two 
religions, of the clau and 
of the Olympian gods, both 
kept their hold upon the 
faith of most Athenians 
even in the age of Pericles. 
Neither had much to do 
with conduct toward men. 
The good sense and clear 
thinking of the Greeks 
had freed their religion from the grossest features of Oriental 
worship ; but on the whole their moral ideas are to be sought 
in their philosophy, literature, and history, rather than in their 
stories about the gods. 

The Greeks accepted frankly the search for pleasure as nat- 
ural and proper. Self-sacrifice had little place in their ideal. 
They lacked altogether the Jewish and Christian "sense of 




A Satyr by Praxitiles. 
This is Hawthorne's " Marble Faun. 



228 INTELLECTUAL AND ARTISTIC ATHENS [§ 232 

sin." They were moved to right conduct, not by the Christian's 
spiritual love for the beauty of holiness, but by an intellectual ad- 
miration for the beauty of moderation and of temperance. Indi- 
vidual characters at once lofty and lovable were not numerous. 
No society ever produced so many great men, but many socie- 
ties have produced better men. Greek excellence was intel- 
lectual rather than moral. Trickery and deceit mark most of 
the greatest names, and not even physical or moral bravery can 
be called a national characteristic. The wily Themistocles, 
rather than Socrates or Pericles, is the typical Greek hero; 
and even when seeking to entrap the Persians by his secret 
message at Salamis, Themistocles seems to have kept in mind 
the possibility of claiming Persian rewards if Xerxes should 
conquer. 

At the same time, a few individuals tower to great heights 
and a few Greek teachers give us some of the noblest morality 
of the world. Says Mahaffy {Social Greece, 8), after acknowl- 
edging the cruelty and barbarity of Greek life : " Socrates and 
Plato are far superior to the Jewish moralists; they are 
superior to the average Christian moralist; it is only in the 
matchless teaching of Christ himself that we find them sur- 
passed." 

232. Illustrative Extracts. — The following passages illustrate the 
moral ideas of the best of the Greeks. They are taken from Athenian 
writers of the age of Pericles, and represent the mountain peaks of Greek 
thought, not its average level. Still, a volume of such passages might be 
put together. 

a. From Aeschylus. 

" The lips of Zeus know not to speak a lying speech." 

*' Justice shines in smoke-grimed houses and holds in regard the life 
that is righteous ; she leaves with averted eyes the gold-bespangled palace 
which is unclean, and goes to the abode that is holy.'* 

h. Antigone, the heroine of a play by Sophocles, has knowingly in- 
curred penalty of death by disobeying an unrighteous command of a 
wicked king. She justifies her deed proudly, — 



§232] MORAL IDEALS 229 

" Nor did I deem thy edicts strong enough 
That thou, a mortal man, should' st overpass 
The unwritten laws of God that know no changed 

c. From Socrates to his Judges after his condemnation to deatn 
(Plato's Apology). — "Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about 
death, and know this of a truth — that no evil can happen to a good man, 
either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods. 
. . . The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways — I to die, 
you to live. Which is better, God only knows." 

d. From Plato (the greatest disciple of Socrates, § 315). — " My counsel 
is that we hold fast ever to the heavenly way and follow justice and vir- 
tue. . . . Thus we shall live dear to one another and to the gods, both 
while remaining here, and when, like conquerors in the games, we go to 
receive our reward." 

e. A Prayer of Socrates (from Plato's Phaedrus). — "Beloved Pan, 
and all ye other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward 
soul ; and may the outward and inward man be at one. May I reckon 
the wise to be the wealthy, and may I have such a quantity of gold as 
none but the temperate can carry." 

(The quotations from Socrates' talks after his condemnation, given in 
§ 227 above, give more material of this kind. Fuller passages will be 
found in Davis' Beadings, Vol. I, Nos. 89-92.) 



For Further Keading. — Specially suggested: Davis' Beading s, 
Vol. I, Nos. 76-80 (11 pages, mostly from Plutarch and Thucydides) ; 
and Nos. 88-97 (24 pages) ; Bury, 363-378, 

Additional : Valuable and very readable treatments will be found in 
any of the three excellent volumes mentioned for the two preceding top- 
ics, — Cox's Athenian Empire, Grant's JL^^e of Pericles, or Abbott's Peri- 
cles. Plutarch's Pericles ought to be inviting, from the extracts in Davis' 
Beadings. Dr. Davis' novel, A Victor of Salamis, is the best fiction 
for Greek history. A Day in Old Athens, by the same author, is a vivid 
presentation of various matters touched upon in this and the next chapter. 

Exercise. — Count up and classify the kinds of sources of our knowledge 
about the ancient world, — so far as this book has alluded to sources of 
information. Note here the suggestions for '■'■ fact-drills,''^ on page 295, 
and begin to prepare the lists. 



CHAPTER XIV 
LIFE IN THE AGE OF PERICLES 

233. Houses, even those of the rich, were very simple. The 
poor could not afford more ; and the rich man thought his 
house of little account. It was merely a place to keep his 
women folk and young children and some other valuable 
property, and to sleep in. His real life was passed outside. 

A "well-to-do" house was built with a wooden frame, cov- 
ered with sun-dried clay. Such buildings have not left many 
remains ; and most of what we know about them comes from 
brief references in Greek literature. On the opposite page is 
given the ground plan of one of the few private houses of the 
fifth century which has been unearthed in a state to be traced 
out. This house was at Delos ; and it was something of a 
mansion, for the times. 

Houses were built flush with the street, and on a level with 
itj — without even sidewalk or steps between. The door, too, 
usually opened out — so that passers-by were liable to bumps, 
unless they kept well to the middle of the narrow street. 
In i:his Delos mansion, the street door opened into a small 
vestibule (A), about six feet by ten. This led to a square 
"hall" (D, D, D, D), which was the central feature of every 
Greek house of importance. In the center of the hall there 
was always a " court," open to the sky, and surrounded by a 
row of columns. The columns were to uphold their side of 
the hall ceiling, — since the hall had no wall next the court, 
but was divided from it only by the columns. In the Delos 
house, the columns were ten feet high (probably higher than 
was usual), and the court was paved with a beautiful mosaic. 
Commonly, however, all floors in private houses, until some 
three centuries later, were made of concrete. 

230 



§233] 



THE GREEK HOUSE 



231 



Under part of the hall were two cellars or cisterns; and 
from the hall there opened six more rooms. The largest {H) 
was the dining room and kitchen, with a small recess for the 
chimney in one corner. The other rooms were store rooms, 
or sleeping rooms for male slaves and unmarried sons. Any- 
occasional overflow of guests could be taken care of by couches 
in the hall. This whole floor was for males only. 




Plan of a Fifth-century Delos House. 
After Gardiner and Jevons. 



Some houses (of the very rich) had only one story. In that 
case there was at the rear a second half for the women, con- 
nected with the men's half by a door in the partition wall. 
This rear half of the house, in such cases, had its own central 
hall and open court, and an arrangement of rooms similar to 
that in the front half. But more commonly, as in the Delos 
house, there was an upper story for the women, reached by 
a steep stairway in the lower hall, and projecting, perhaps, 
part way over the street. Near the street door, on the outside, 
there was a niche in the wall for the usual statue of Hermes ; 
and a small niche in room F was used probably as a shrine for 
some other deity. 

The doorways of the interior were usually hung with cui' 



232 THE AGE OF PERICLES [§234 

tains ; but store rooms had doors with bronze locks. Bronze 
keys are sometimes found in the ruins, and they are pictured 
in use in vase paintings. The door between the men's and 
women's apartments was kept locked: only the master of 
the house, his wife, and perhaps a trusted slave, had keys to 
it. The Delos house had only one outside door; but often 
there was a rear door into a small, walled garden. City 
houses were crowded close together, with small chance for 
windows on the sides. Sometimes narrow slits in the wall 
opened on the street. Otherwise, except for the one door, the 
street front was a blank wall. If there were windows on the 
street at all, they were filled with a close wooden lattice. 
The Greeks did not have glass panes for windows. The 
houses were dark; and most of the dim light came from 
openings on the central court, through the hall. 

In cold damp weather (of which, happily, there was not much), 
the house was exceedingly uncomfortable. The kitchen had 
a real chimney, with cooking arrangements like those in an- 
cient Cretan houses (§ 96). But for other rooms the only 
artificial heat came from small fires of wood or charcoal in 
braziers, — such as are still carried from room to room, on occa- 
sion, in Greece or Italy or Spain. The choking fumes which 
filled the room were n^t much more desirable than the cold 
which they did little to drive away. Sometimes a large open 
fire in the court gave warmth to the hall. At night, earthen- 
ware lamps, on shelves or brackets, furnished light. There 
were no bathrooms, and no sanitary conveniences. 

Poor people lived in houses of one or two rooms. A middle 
class had houses nearly as large as the one described above ; 
but they rented the upper story to lodgers. Professional lodg- 
ing houses had begun to appear, with several stories of small 
rooms, for unmarried poor men and for slaves who could not 
find room in the master's house. 

234. The residence streets were narrow and irregular, — 
hardly more than crooked, dark alleys. They had no pave- 
ment, and they were littered with all the filth and refuse 



§ 235] GREEK FAMILY LIFE 233 

from the houses. Slops, from upper windows, sometimes 
doused unwary passers-by. Splendid as were the public por- 
tions of Athens, the residence quarters were much like a 
squalid Oriental city of to-day. In the time of Pericles, 
wealthy men were just beginning to build more comfortably 
on the hills near the city; but war kept this practice from 
becoming common till a much later time. 




Greek Girls at Play. —From a vase painting. 

235. The Family. — In the Oriental lands which we ha?© 
studied, a man was at liberty to have as many wives in his 
household as he chose to support. Poor men usually were 
content with one ; but, among the rich, polygamy was the rule. 
A Greek had only one wife. Imperfect as Greek family life 
was, the adoption of "monogamy" was a great step forward. 

The Homeric poems give many pictures of lovely family 
life ; and the Homeric women meet male guests and strangers 
with a natural dignity and ease. In historic Greece, as we 
have noted (§ 230), this freedom for women had been lost — 
except, in some degree, at Sparta. Marriage was arranged by 
parents. The young people as a rule had never seen each 
other. Girls were married very young — by fifteen or earlier 



234 THE AGE OF PERICLES [§235 

— and had no training of any valuable sort. Among the 
wealthy classes, they spent the rest of their days indoors — 
except on some rare festival occasions. The model wife 
learned to oversee the household ; but in most homes this was 
left to trained slaves, and the wife dawdled away the day list- 
lessly at her toilet or in vacant idleness, much as in an Eastern 
harem to-day, waiting for a visit from her master. The vase 
pictures show her commonly with a mirror. Unwholesome 
living led to excessive use of red and white paint, and other 
cosmetics, to imitate the complexion of early youth .^ 

Law and public opinion allowed the father to " expose " a 
new-born child to die. This was done sometimes in Athens with 
girl babies. Indeed the practice was common among the poor. 
Boys were valued more. They would offer sacrifices, in time, at 
the father's tomb, and they could Jight for the city. Till the age 
of seven, boys and girls lived together in the women's apart- 
ments. Then the boy began his school life (§ 240). The girl 
continued her childhood until marriage. Much of her time was 
spent at music and in games. One very common game was 
like our " Jackstones," except that it was played with little 
bones. Not till the evening before her marriage did the girl 
put away her doll, — offering it then solemnly on the shrine 
of the goddess Artemis. 

236. Greek dress is well known, as to its general effect, from 
pictures and sculpture. Women of the better classes wore 
flowing garments, fastened at the shoulders with clasp-pins, and 
gathered in graceful loose folds at the waist. The robe was 
so draped as to leave the arms, and sometimes one shoulder, 
bare. Outside the house, the woman wore also a kind of long 
mantle, which was often drawn up over the head. 

The chief article of men's dress was a shirt of linen or wool, 
which fell about to the knees. For active movements, this was 
often clasped with a girdle about the waist, and shortened by 
being drawn up so as to fall in folds over the girdle. Over 

1 Davis, Readings, Vol. I, No. 99, pictures an ideal Greek household. 



§237] 



GREEK DRESS 



235 



this was draped a long mantle, falling in folds to the feet 
This is well shown in the statue of Sophocles, on page 214. 
Sometimes, this mantle was carried on the arm. The soles 
of the feet were commonly protected by sandals; but there 
was also a great variety of other foot gear. Socrates' habit 
of going barefooted was the rule at Sparta for men under 
middle age; and some Spartan kings made it their practice 
all their lives. 

Even these statements do not make emphatic enough the very simpk 
nature of men's dress. The inner garment was merely a piece of cloth 
in two oblong parts (sometimes partly sewn together), fastened by pins, 
so as to hold it on. The outer garment was one oblong piece of cloth, 
larger and not fastened at all. 




A Vase Painting, showing the Trojan prince enticing away Helen. The 
painting is of the fifth century, and shows fashions in dress for that time. 

237. Occupations. — Good " society " looked down upon all 
forms of money-making by personal exertion. A physician 
who took pay for his services they despised almost as much 
as they did a carpenter or shoemaker. This attitude is natural 
to a slaveholding society. Careless thinkers sometimes admire 
it. But it contains less promise for mankind than does even 
our modern worship of the dollar, bad as that sometimes is. 
The Greek wanted money enough to supply all the comforts 



236 THE AGE OF PERICLES [§231 

that he knew about ; but he wanted it to come without his 
earning it. He was very glad to have slaves earn it for him. 

Most of the hand labor was busied in tilling the soil. The 
farmer manured his land skillfully ; but otherwise he made 
no advance over the Egyptian farmer — who had not been com- 
pelled to enrich his land. Some districts, like Corinth and 
Attica, could not furnish food enough for their populations 
from their own soil. Athens imported grain from other parts 




Greek Women, in various activities. — From a vase painting. 

of Hellas and from Thrace and Egypt. This grain was paid 
for, in the long run, by the export of manufactures. In the 
age of Pericles, large factories had appeared. (See Davis' 
Headings, Vol. I, No. 76, for a list of twenty-five handicrafts 
connected with the beautifying of the Acropolis.) In these 
factories, the place taken now by machinery was taken then, in 
large part, by slaves. The owner of a factory did not com- 
monly own all the slaves employed in it. Any master of a 
slave skilled in that particular trade might " rent " him out to 
the factory by the month or year. 

In Attica, then, the villages outside Athens were mainly 
occupied by farmers and farm laborers. Commerce (as well 
as much manufacturing) was centered in the Piraeus, and was 
managed directly, for the most part, by the non-citizen class. 

In Athens, the poorer classes worked at their trades or in 
their shops from sunrise to sunset — with a holiday about one 



5 238] 



CLASSES AND INDUSTRIES 



237 



day in three. Their pay was small, because of the competi- 
tion of slave labor; but they needed little pay to give them 
most of the comforts of the rich — except constant leisure. 
And we must understand that the Greek artisan — sometimes 
even the slave — took a noble pride in his imrk. The stone 
masons who chiseled out the fluted columns of the Parthenon 
felt themselves fellow workmen with Phidias who carved the 
pediments. In general, the Greek workman seems to have 
worked deliberately and to 



W: 







have found a delight in his 
work which was known also 
to the artisan of the Middle 
Ages in Europe, but which 
has been largely driven out 
of modern life by our greater 
subdivision of labor and by 
our greater pressure for haste. 

An Athenian citizen of the 
wealthy class usually owned 
lands outside the city, worked 
by slaves and managed by 
some trusted steward. Prob- 
ably he also had capital in- 
vested in trading vessels, 
though he was not likely to have any part in managing them. 
Some revenue he drew from money at interest with the bankers ; 
and he drew large sums, too, from the " rent " of slaves to the 
factories. 

238. A Day of the Leisure Class. — Like the poorer citizens, 
the rich man rose with the sun. A slave poured water over 
his face and hands, or perhaps over his naked body, from a 
basin. (Poor men like Socrates bathed at the public foun- 
tains.) He then broke his fast on a cup of wine and a dry 
crust of bread. Afterward, perhaps he rode into the country, 
to visit one of his farms there, or for a day's hunting. 

If, instead, he remained within the city, he left his house 



A Barber in Tkrra-Cotta, 
From Bliimner. 



238 



THE AGE OF PERICLES 



[§238 



at once, stopping, probably, at a barber's, to have bis beard 
and finger nails attended to, as well as to gather the latest 
news from the barber's talk. In any case, the later half of 
the morning, if not the first part, would find him strolling 
through the shaded arcades about the market place, among 
throngs of his fellows, greeting acquaintances and stopping for 
conversation with friends — with whom, sometimes, he sat on 

the benches that 
were interspersed 
among the colon- 
nades. At such 
times, he was al- 
ways followed by 
one or two hand- 
some slave boys, 
to run errands. 
At midday, he re- 
turned home for 
a light lunch. In 
the afternoon, he 
sometimes slept. 
Or, if a student, 
he took to his rolls 
of papyrus. Or, 
if a statesman, 
perhaps he prepared his speech for the next meeting of the 
Assembly. Sometimes, he visited the public gaming houses or 
the clubs. During the afternoon, — usually toward evening, 
— he bathed at a public bathing house, hot, cold, or vapor 
bath, as his taste decided ; and here again he held conversation 
with friends, while resting, or while the slave attendants rubbed 
him with oil and ointment. The bath was usually preceded by 
an hour or more of exercise in a gymnasium. 

Toward sunset, he once more visited his home, unless he was 
to dine out. If the evening meal was to be, for a rare occasion, 
at home and without guests, he ate with his family, — his wife 




The Wrestlers. 



§239] A GENTLEMAN'S DAY 239 

sitting at the foot of the couch where he reclined ; and soon 
afterward he went to bed. More commonly, he entertained 
guests — whom he had invited to dinner as he met them at 
the market place in the morning — or he was himself a guest 
elsewhere. 

The evening meal deserves a section to itself (§ 239). First 
let us note that such days as we have just described were not 
allowed to become monotonous at Athens. For several years 
of his life, the citizen was certain to be busied most of the time 
in the service of the state (§ 212). At other times, the meet- 
ings of the Assembly and the religious festivals and the theater 
took at least one day out of every three. 

239. The evening banquet played a large part in Greek life. 
As guests arrived, they took their places in pairs, on couches, 
which were arranged around the room, each man reclining on 
his left arm. Slaves removed the sandals or shoes, wash- 
ing the dust from the feet, and passed bowls of water for 
the hands. They then brought in low three-legged tables, one 
before each couch, on which they afterward placed course after 
course of food. 

The Greeks of this period were not luxurious about eating. 
The meals were rather simple. Food was cut into small 
pieces in the kitchen. No forks or knives were used at 
table. Men ate with a spoon, or, more commonly, with the 
fingers ; and at the close, slaves once more passed bowls for 
washing the hands. When the eating was over, the real busi- 
ness of the evening began — with the wine. This was mixed 
with water; and drunkenness was not common ; but the drinking 
lasted late, with serious or playful talk, and singing and story- 
telling, and with forfeits for those who did not perform well any 
part assigned them by the " master of the feast " (one of their 
number chosen by the others when the wine appeared). Often 
the host had musicians come in, with jugglers and dancing 
girls. Eespectable women never appeared on these occasions. 
Only on marriage festivals, or some special family celebration, 
did the women of a family meet male guests at all. 



240 



THE AGE OF PERICLES 



[§240 



240. Education. — Education at Athens, as in nearly all 
Greece, was in marked contrast with Spartan education (§ 130). 
It aimed to train harmoniously the intellect, the sense of beauty, 
the moral nature, and the body. At the age of seven the boy 




School Scenes. — A Bowl Painting. 
Instruments of instruction, mostly musical, hang on the walls. In the first 
half, one instructor is correcting the exercise of a boy who stands before 
him. Another is showing how to use the flute. The seated figures, with 
staffs, are "pedagogues." 

entered school, but he was constantly under the eye not only 
of the teacher, but of a trusted servant of his own family, 
called a pedagogue.^ The chief subjects for study were Homer 

1 The word meant " boy-leader." Its use for a " teacher " is later. 



§ 240] EDUCATION 241 

and music. Homer, it has well been said, was to the Greek 
at once Bible, Shakespeare, and Robinson Crusoe. The boy- 
learned to write on papyrus with ink. But papyrus was 
costly, and the elementary exercises were carried on with a 
sharp instrument on tablets coated with wax. 'No great pro- 
ficiency was expected from the average rich youth in writing — 
since he would have slaves do most of it for him in after life. 
The schoolmaster indulged in cruel floggings on slight occasion 
(Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 94). 

When the youth left school, he entered upon a wider train- 
ing, in the political debates of the Assembly, in the lecture halls 
of the Sophists, in the many festivals and religious processions, 
in the plays of the great dramatists at the theaters, and in the 
constant enjoyment of the noblest and purest works of art. 

Physical training began with the child and continued 
through old age. No Greek youth would pass a day without 
devoting some hours to developing his body and to overcoming 
any physical defect or awkwardness that he might have. All 
classes of citizens, except those bound by necessity to the work- 
shop, met for exercise. The result was a perfection of physical 
power and beauty never attained so universally by any other 
people. 

Imaginative Exercises. — This period affords excellent material for 
exercises based upon the training of the historic imagination. Let the 
student absorb all the information he can find upon some historical topic, 
until he is filled with its spirit, and then reproduce \tfrom the inside^ with 
the dramatic spirit — as though he lived in that time — not in the descrip' 
tive method of another age. The following topics are suggested (the list 
can be indefinitely extended, and such exercises may be arranged for any 
period) : — 

1. A captive Persian's letter to a friend after Plataea. 

2. A dialogue between Socrates and Xanthippe. 

3. An address by a Messenian to his fellows in their revolt against 
Sparta. 

4. Extracts from a diary of Pericles. 

5. A day at the Olympic games (choose some particular date). 



CHAPTER XV 

THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 
('431-404 B.C.) 

241. Causes. — Athens and Sparta were at the opposite poles 
of Greek civilization. Athens stood for progress. Sparta was 
the champion of old ways. A like contrast ran through the 
two leagues of which these cities were the heads. The cities 
of the Athenian empire were Ionian in blood, democratic in 
politics, commercial in interests. Most of the cities of the 
Peloponnesian league were Dorian in blood and aristocratic in 
politics, and their citizens were landowners. This difference 
between the Athenian and Spartan states gave rise to mutual 
distrust. It was easy for any misunderstanding to ripen into 
war. 

Still, if none of the cities of the Peloponnesian league had had 
any interests on the sea, the two powers might each have gone 
its own way without crossing the other's path. But Corinth 
and Megara (members of Sparta's league) were trading cities, 
like Athens ; and, after the growth of the Athenian empire, 
they felt the basis of their prosperity slipping from under 
them. They had lost the trade of the Aegean, and Athens had 
gained it. And now Athens was reaching out also for the 
commerce of the western coasts of Greece. Next to Sparta, 
Corinth was the most powerful city in the Peloponnesian 
league ; and she finally persuaded Sparta to take up arms 
against Athens, before the Thirty Years' Truce (§ 202) had 
run quite half its length. 

242. The immediate occasion for the struggle was found in 
some aid which Athens gave Corcyra against an attack by 
Corinth in 432 b.c- 

242 



$ 243] RESOURCES AND PLANS 243 

Corcyra was the third naval power in Greece. Corinth was second 
only to Athens. Corinth and Corcyra had come to blows, and Corcyra 
asked to be taken into the Athenian league. Athens finally promised 
defensive aid, and sent ten ships with instructions to take no part in 
offensive operations. A great armament of 150 Corinthian vessels 
appeared off the southern coast of Corcyra. Corcyra could muster 
only 110 ships. In the battle that followed, the Corinthians were at first 
completely victorious. They sank or captured many ships, and seemed 
about to destroy the whole Corcyran fleet. Then the little Athenian 
squadron came to the rescue, and by their superior skill quickly 
restored the fortune of the day. 

But in the negotiations that followed, between Athens and 
the Peloponnesian league, this matter of Corcyra fell out of 
sight, and the quarrel was joined on broader issues.^ Sparta 
finally sent a haughty ultimatum, posing, herself, as the 
champion of a free Hellas against t}/rant Athens, which had en- 
slaved the Aegean cities. " Let Athens set those cities free, 
and she might still have peace with Sparta." A timid party, 
of Athenian aristocrats, wished peace even on these terms. 
But the Assembly adopted a dignified resolution moved by 
Pericles : — 

"Let us send the ambassadors away," said he, "with this answer: 
That we will grant independence to the cities ... as soon as the Spartans 
allow their subject states [Messenia and the subject towns of Laconia] to 
be governed as they choose, and not by the will and interest of Sparta. 
Also, that we are willing to offer arbitration^ according to the treaty [the 
treaty of the Thirty Years' Truce]. And that we do not want to begin 
the war, but shall know how to defend ourselves if we are attacked." 

As Pericles frankly warned the Assembly, this reply meant 
conflict. And so in 431 began the " Peloponnesian War." 

243. Resources and Plans. — The Peloponnesian league could 
muster a hundred thousand hoplites, against whom in that 
day no army in the world could stand ; but it could not keep 
many men in the field longer than a few weeks. Sparta could 

1 Special report : the narrative of the deliberations at Sparta regarding war 
or peace (note especially Thucydides' account of the Corinthian speech re- 
garding Sparta and Athens in Davis' Readings^ Vol. I, No. 77). 



244 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR [§244 

not capture Athens, therefore, and must depend upon ravaging 
Attic territory and inducing Athenian allies to revolt. 

Athens had only some twenty-six thousand hoplites at her 
command, and half of these were needed for distant garrison 
duty. But she had a navy even more unmatched on the sea than 
the Peloponnesian army was on land. Her walls were impreg- 
nable. The islands of Euboea and Salamis, and the open spaces 
within the Long Walls, she thought, could receive her country 
people with their flocks and herds. The corn trade of south 
Eussia was securely in her hands. The grain ships could enter 
the Piraeus as usual, however the Spartans might hold the 
open country of Attica. Athens could easily afford to support 
her population for a time from her annual revenues, to say 
nothing of the immense surplus of 6000 talents ($ 6,000,000) in 
the treasury. 

When war began, the Spartans marched each year into 
Attica with overwhelming force, and remained there for some 
weeks, laying waste the crops, burning the villages, and cut- 
ting down the olive groves, up to the very walls of Athens. 
At first, with frenzied rage, the Athenians clamored to march 
out against the invader; but Pericles strained his great au- 
thority to prevent such a disaster, and finally he convinced 
the people that they must bear this insult and injury with 
patience. Meantime, an Athenian fleet was always sent to 
ravage the coasts and harbors of Peloponnesus and to conquer 
various exposed allies of Sparta. Each party could inflict 
considerable damage, hut neither could get at the other to strike a 
vital bloiv. The war promised to be a matter of endurance. 

Here Athens seemed to have an advantage, since she had the 
stronger motive for holding out. She was fighting to preserve 
her empire, and could not give up without ruin. Sparta could 
cease fighting without loss to herself ; and Pericles hoped to 
tire her out. 

244. The Plague in Athens. — The plan of Pericles might 
have been successful, had the Spartans not been encouraged 
by a tragic disaster which fell upon Athens and which no one 



§244] THE PLAGUE IN ATHENS 245 

in that daj could have foreseen. A terrible plague had been 
ravaging western Asia, and in the second year of the war it 
reached the Aegean. In most parts of Hellas it did no great 
harm ; but in Athens it was peculiarly deadly. The people of 
all Attica, crowded into the one city, were living under unusual 
and unwholesome conditions ; and the pestilence returned each 
summer for several years. It slew more than a fourth of the 
population, and paralyzed industry and all ordinary activ- 
ities. Worse still, it shattered, for years, the proud and joy- 
ous self-trust which had come to the Athenian people after 
Marathon. 

Thucydides, an eye witness, has described the ravages of the 
plague and explained their cause. " When the country people 
of Attica arrived in Athens," he says, " a few had homes of their 
own, or found friends to take them in. But far the greater 
number had to find a place to live on some vacant spot or in 
the temples of the gods and chapels of the heroes. . . Many 
also camped down in the towers of the walls or wherever else 
they could; for the city proved too small to hold them." 
Thucydides could see the unhappy results of these conditions, 
after the plague had fallen on the city ; and he adds, with 
grim irony, that " while these country folk were dividing the 
spaces between the Long Walls and settling there," the govern- 
ment (Generals and Council) were "paying great attention to 
mustering a fleet for ravaging the Peloponnesian coasts." 

Then, in dealing with the horrible story of the plague, 
Thucydides shows how these conditions prepared for it. " The 
new arrivals from the country were the greatest sufferers, — 
lodged during this hot season in stifling huts, where death 
raged without check. The bodies of dying men lay one upon 
another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets, poi- 
soning all the fountains and wells with their bodies, in their 
loQging for water. The sacred places in which they had 
camped were full of corpses [a terrible sacrilege, to Greeks] ; 
for men, not Jcnoiuing ivhat was to become of them, became 
wholly careless of everything.^' 



246 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR [§245 

245. Twenty-seven Years of War. — Still, the Athenians did 
recover their buoyant hope ; and the war dragged along with 
varying success for twenty-seven years, with one short and 
ill-kept truce, — a whole generation growing up from the 
cradle to manhood in incessant war. A story of the long strug- 
gle in detail would take a volume. Tlie contest was not of such 
lasting importance as the preceding struggle between the Greek and 
Persian civilizations; and only a few incidents require mention. 

246. Athenian Naval Supremacy. — On the sea the superiority 
of Athens consisted not merely in the size of her navy, hut even 
more in its skill. The other Greeks still fought, as at the time 
of Salamis, by dashing their ships against each other, beak 
against beak, and then, if neither was sunk, by grappling the 
vessels together, and fighting as if on land. The Athenians, 
however, had now learned to maneuver their ships, rowing 
swiftly about the enemy with many feints, and seizing the 
opportunity to sink a ship by a sudden blow at an exposed 
point. Their improved tactics revolutionized naval warfare ; 
and for years small fleets of Athenian ships proved equal to 
three times their number of the enemy.^ Gradually, however, 
the Peloponnesians learned something of the Athenian tactics, 
and this difference became less marked. 

247. New Leaders. — The deadliest blow of the plague was 
the striking down of Pericles, who died of the disease, in 
the third year of the war. Never had the Athenians so 
needed his controlling will and calm judgment. He was fol- 
lowed by a new class of leaders, — men of the people, like 
Cleon the tanner, and Hyperholus the lampmaker, — men of 
strong will and much force, but rude, untrained, unscrupulous, 
and ready to surrender their own convictions, if necessary, to 
win the favor of the crowd. Such men were to lead Athens 
into many blunders and crimes. Over against them stood 
only a group of incapable aristocrats, led by Nicias, a good but 
stupid man, and Alcibiades, a brilliant, unprincipled adventurer. 

1 Special report to illustrate these points ; the story of Phormio's victories 
in the Corinthian Gulf in 431. 



§249] ATHENIAN DISASTER 247 

Athens was peculiarly unfortunate in her statesmen at 
this period. She produced no Themistocles, or Aristides, or 
Cimon, or Pericles ; and Phormio and Demosthenes, her great 
admirals, were usually absent from the city. Sparta, on the 
other hand, produced two greater generals than ever before in 
her history: Brasidas, whose brilliant campaigns overthrew 
Athenian supremacy on the coast of Thrace ; and Lysander, 
who was finally to bring the war to a close. 

248. Athenian Disaster in Sicily. — The turning-point in the 
war was an unwise and misconducted Athenian expedition 
against Syracuse.^ Two hundred perfectly equipped ships and 
over forty thousand men — among them eleven thousand of 
the flower of the Athenian hoplites — were pitifully sacrificed 
by the superstition and miserable generalship of their leader, 
Nicias (413 b.c). 

Even after this crushing disaster Athens refused peace that 
should take away her empire. Every nerve was strained, and 
the last resources and reserve funds exhausted, to build and 
man new fleets. The war lasted nine years more, and part of 
the time Athens seemed as supreme in the Aegean as ever. 
Two things are notable in the closing chapters of the struggle, 
— the attempt to overthrow democracy in Athens, and Sparta's 
betrayal of the Asiatic Greeks to Persia (§§ 249, 250). 

249. The Rule of the Four Hundred. —For a century, the oli- 
garchic party had hardly raised its head in Athens ; but in 411, 
it attempted once more to seize the government. Wealthy men 
of moderate opinions were wearied by the heavy taxation of the 
war. The democracy had blundered sadly and had shown itself 
unfit to deal with foreign relations, where secrecy and dispatch 
were essential; and its new leaders were particularly offensive 
to the old Athenian families. 

Under these conditions, the officers of the fleet conspired 
with secret oligarchic societies at home. Leading democrats 
were assassinated ; and the Assembly was terrorized into sur< 

1 Syracuse, a Dorian city and a warm friend to Sparta, had been encroach* 
ing upon Ionian allies of Athens in Sicily. 



248 THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR [§250 

rendering its powers to a council of Four Hundred of the oli- 
garchs. But this body proved generally incompetent, except 
in murder and plunder, and it permitted needless disasters in 
the war. After a few months, the Athenian fleet at Samos de- 
posed its oligarchic officers ; and the democracy at home expelled 
the Four Hundred and restored the old government. 




Route of the Long "Walls, looking southwest to the harbor, some three 
and one half miles distant. From a recent photograph. 

250. Sparta betrays the Asiatic Greeks. — In 412, immediately 
after the destruction of the Athenian army and fleet in Sicily, 
Persian satraps appeared again upon the Aegean coast. Sparta 
at once bought the aid of their gold by promising to betray the 
freedom of the Asiatic Greeks, — to whom the Athenian name 
had been a shield for seventy years. Persian funds now built 
fleet after fleet for Sparta, and slowly Athens was exhausted; 
despite some brilliant victories. 

251. Fall of Athens. — In 405, the last Athenian fleet was 
surprised and captured at Aegospotami ( Goat Rivers). Appar- 
ently the officers had been plotting again for an oligarchic revolu- 
tion; and the sailors had been discouraged and demoralizeu, 
even if they were not actually betrayed by their commanders. 



§ 251] FALL OF ATHENS 249 

Lysander, the Spartan commander, in cold blood put to death 
the four thousand Athenian citizens among the captives.^ 

This slaughter marks the end. Athens still held out despair- 
ing but stubborn, until starved into submission by a terrible 
siege. In 404, the proud city surrendered to the mercy of its 
foes. Corinth and Thebes wished to raze it from the earth ; 
but Sparta had no mind to do away with so useful a check upon 
those cities. She compelled Athens to renounce all claims to 
empire, to give up all alliances, to surrender all her ships but 
twelve, and to promise to " follow Sparta " in peace and war. 
The Long Walls and the defenses of the Piraeus were demol- 
ished, to the music of Peloponnesian flutes; and Hellas was 
declared free ! 

Events were at once to show this promise a cruel mockery. 
Tlie one power that could have grown into a free and united 
Greece had been ruined, and it remained to see to what foreign 
master Greece should fall. 



For Further Reading. — Specially suggested: Davis' Headings, 
Vol. I, Nos. 81-86 (16 pages), gives the most striking episodes of the war, 
as they were told by the Athenian historians of the day, Thucydides 
and Xenophon. Plutarch's Lives (" Alcibiades," "Nicias," and "Ly- 
sander") is the next most valuable authority. 

The following modern authorities continue to be useful (and may be 
consulted for special reports upon the period, if any are assigned) : Bury, 
chs. X, xi ; the closing parts of Grant's Age of Pericles and of Abbott's 
Pericles; and Cox's Athenian Empire. Bury gives 120 pages to che 
struggle, — too long an account for reading, but useful for special topics. 

1 Special reports: (1) Cleon's leadership. (2) The trial of the Athenian 
generals after the victory of Arginusae. (3) The massacre of the Mytilenean 
oligarchs (story of the decree and the reprieve). (4) Massacre of the Melians 
by Athens, 415 e.g. (5) Note the merciless nature of the struggle, as shown 
by other massacres of prisoners: i.e., Thebans by Plataeans, 431 B.C.; Pla- 
taeans by Thebans, 427 b.c. ; thousands of Athenians in the mines of Syracuse ; 
the four thousand Athenians after Aegospotami. (6) The career of Alcibi- 
ades. (7) The Thracian campaigns. (8) The Sicilian expedition. (9) The 
Siege of Plataea. 

Material for such reports will be easily found in the books named at the 
end of this chaDtef 



CHAPTER XVI 

FROM THE FALL OF ATHENS TO THE FALL OF HELLAS 
(404^338 B.C.) 

252. Decline of Hellas. — The Athenian empire had lasted seventy 
glorious years. Nearly an equal time was yet to elapse before Hellas 
fell under Macedonian sway; but it need not detain us long. Persia 
had already begun again to enslave the Greeks of Asia ; Carthage again 
did the like in Sicily ; and in the European peninsula the period was one 
of shame or of profitless wars. It falls into three parts : thirty -three 
years of Spartan supremacy; nine years of Theban supremacy; and 
some twenty years of anarchy. 

SPARTAN SUPREMACY, 404-371 B.C. 

253. " Decarchies." — After Aegospotami, Sparta was mis- 
tress of Greece more completely than Athens had ever been, 
but for only half as long ; and most of that time was given to 
wars to maintain her authority. She had promised to set 
Hellas free ; but the cities of the old Athenian empire found 
that they had exchanged a mild, wise rule for a coarse and 
stupid despotism.^ Their old tribute was doubled; their self-gov- 
ernment was taken away ; bloodshed and confusion rin riot in 
their streets. 

Everywhere Sparta overthrew the old democracies, and set 
up oligarchic governments. Usually the management of a 
city was given to a board of ten men, called a decarchy (" rule 
of ten "). These oligarchies, of course, were dependent upon 
Sparta.^ To defend them against any democratic rising, there 

1 Cox, Athenian Empire, 229-231, gives an admirable contrast between the 
Athenian and the Spartan systems. 

2 Note the likeness between this Spartan method and the Persian practice 
of setting up tyrannies, dependent upon Persia, in the Ionian cities (§ 164). 

250 



§255] SPARTAN TYRANNY OVER GREECE 251 

was placed in many cities a Spartan garrison, with a Spartan 
military governor called a harmost. The garrisons plundered at 
will ; the harmosts grew rich from extortion and bribes ; the 
decarchies were slavishly subservient to their masters, while 
they wreaked upon their fellow-citizens a long pent-up aristo- 
cratic vengeance, in confiscation, outrage, expulsion, assassina- 
tion, and massacre. 

254. Spartan Decay. — In Sparta itself luxury and corruption 
replaced the old simplicity. As a result, the number of citi- 
zens was rapidly growing smaller. Property was gathered 
into the hands of a few, while many Spartans grew too poor to 
support themselves at the public mess (§ 130). These poorer 
men ceased to be looked upon as citizens. They were not per- 
mitted to vote in the Assembly, and were known as " In- 
feriors." The 10,000 citizens, of the Persian War period, 
shrank to 2000. 

The discontent of the "Inferiors" added to the standing 
danger from the Helots. A plot was formed between these 
classes to change the government ; and only an accident pre- 
vented an armed revolution.^ Thus, even at home, the Spartan 
rule during this period rested on a volcano. 

255. The "Thirty Tyrants" at Athens. — For a time even 
Athens remained a victim to Spartan tyranny, like any petty 
Ionian city. After the surrender, in 404, Lysander appointed 
a committee of thirty from the oligarchic clubs of Athens " to 
reestablish the constitution of the fathers." Meantime, they 
were to hold absolute power. This committee was expected to 
undo the reforms of Pericles and Clisthenes and even of 
Solon, and to restore the ancient oligarchy. As a matter of 
fact they did worse than that : they published no constitution 
at all, but instead they filled all offices with their own followers 
and plotted to make their rule permanent. 

These men were known as " the Thirty Tyrants." They 
called in a Spartan harmost and garrison, to whom they gave 
the fortress of the Acropolis. They disarmed the citizens, ex- 

1 Special report : the conspiracy of Cinadon at Sparta. 



252 SPARTAN SUPREMACY [§256 

cept some three thousand of their own adherents. Then they 
began a bloody and greedy rule. Rich democrats and alien 
merchants were put to death or driven into exile, in order that 
their property might be confiscated.^ The victims of this pro- 
scription were counted by hundreds, perhaps by thousands. 
Larger numbers fled, and, despite the orders of Sparta, they 
were sheltered by Thebes. That city had felt aggrieved that 
her services in the Peloponnesian War received no reward 
from Sparta, and now she would have been glad to see Athens 
more powerful again. 

256. Athens again Free. — This reign of terror at Athens 
lasted over a year. Then, in 403, one of the democratic exiles, 
Thrasybulus, with a band of companions from Thebes, seized the 
Piraeus. The aliens of the harbor rose to his support. The 
Spartan garrison and the forces of the Thirty were defeated. 
A quarrel between Lysander and the Spartan king prevented 
serious Spartan interference, and the old Athenian democracy 
recovered the government. 

The aliens and sailors of the Piraeus had fought valiantly 
with the democrats against the Thirty. Thrasybulus now 
urged that they be made full citizens. That just measure would 
have made up partly for Athens' terrible losses in the Pelopon- 
nesian War, Unfortunately, it was not adopted ; but in other 
respects, the restored democracy showed itself generous as well 
as moderate. A few of the most guilty of the Thirty were 
punished, but for all others a general amnesty was declared. 

The good faith and moderation of the democracy contrasted 
so favorably with the cut-throat rule of the two recent experi- 
ments at oligarchy, that Athens was undisturbed in future by 
revolution. Other parts of Greece, however, were less fortu- 
nate, and democracy never again became so generally established 
in Hellenic cities as it had been in the age of Pericles. 

257. " March of the Ten Thousand." — Meantime, important 
events were taking place in the East. In 401, the weakness of 

1 Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 100, gives a famous instance. 



§259] LEAGUE AGAINST SPARTA 253 

the Persian empire was strikingly shown. Gyrus the Younger, 
brother of the king Artaxerxes, endeavored to seize the Persian 
throne. While a satrap in Asia Minor, Cyrus had furnished 
Sparta the money to keep her fleet together before the battle 
of Goat Rivers ; and now, through Sparta's favor, he was able 
to enlist ten thousand Greeks in his army. 

Cyrus penetrated to the heart of the Persian empire ; but in 
the battle of Cunaxa, near Babylon, he was killed, and his 
Asiatic troops routed. The Ten Thousand Greeks, however, 
proved unconquerable by the Persian host of half a million. 
By treachery the leaders were entrapped and murdered ; but 
under the inspiration of Xenophon ^ the Athenian, the Ten 
Thousand chose new generals and made a remarkable retreat 
to the Greek districts on the Black Sea. 

258. Renewal of the Persian Wars. — Until this time the 
Greeks had waged their contests with Persia only along the 
coasts of Asia. After the Ten Thousand had marched, almost 
at will, through so many hostile nations, the Greeks began to 
dream of conquering the Asiatic continent. Seventy years later, 
Alexander the Great was to make this dream a fact. First, 
however, the attempt was made by Agesilaus, king of Sparta. 

Sparta had brought down upon herself the wrath of Persia, 
anyway, by favoring Cyrus ; and Agesilaus burned with a noble 
ambition to free the Asiatic Greeks, who, a little before (§ 250), 
had been abandoned to Persia by his country. Thus war began 
between Sparta and Persia. In 396, Agesilaus invaded Asia 
Minor with a large army, but was checked, in full career of 
conquest, by events at home (§ 259). 

259. A Greek League against Sparta, 395 B.C. — No sooner was 
Sparta engaged with Persia than enemies rose up in Greece it- 
self. Thebes, Corinth, Athens, and Argos formed an alliance 
against her, and the empire she had gained at Goat Rivers 
was shattered by Conon. Conon was the ablest of the Athenian 
generals in the latter period of the Peloponnesian War. At 

iCf. § 224 and § 41. Xenophon's Anabasis is our authority for these 
events. 



254 



SPARTAN SUPREMACY 



[§260 



Goat Rivers he was the only one who had kept his squadron in 
order ; and after all was lost, he had escaped to Rhodes and 
entered Persian service. Now, in 394, in command of a 

Persian fleet (mainly- 
made up of Phoeni- 
cian ships) he com- 
pletely destroyed the 
Spartan naval power 
at the battle of Cnir 
dus. 

Spartan authority 
in the Aegean van- 
ished. Conon sailed 
from island to island, 
expelling the Spartan 
garrisons, and restor- 
ing democracies ; and 
in the next year he 
anchored in the Pi- 
raeus and rebuilt the 
Long Walls. Athens 
again became one of 
the great powers ; and 
Sparta fell back into 
her old position as 
mere head of the in- 
land Peloponnesian 
league. 

260. Peace of Antalcidas, 387 B.C. — After a few more years 
of indecisive war, Sparta sought peace with Persia. In 387, 
the two powers invited all the Greek states to send deputies to 
Sardis, where the Persian king dictated the terms. The document 
read t — 

" King Artaxerxes deems it just that the cities in Asia, with the islands 
of Clazomenae and Cyprus, should belong to himself. The rest of the Hel- 
lenic cities, both great and small, he will leave independent, save Lemnos, 




The Hermes of Praxiteles. 

The arms and legs of the statue are sadly muti- 
lated, but the head is one of the most famous 
remains of Greek art. Cf . § 220, note. 



§ 262] THEBES — LEUCTRA 255 

Imbros, and Scyros, which three are to belong to Athens as of yore. 
Should any of the parties not accept this peace, I, Artaxerxes, together 
with those who share my views [the Spartans], will war against the 
offenders by land and sea." — Xenephon, HeUenica, v, 1. 

Sparta held that these terms dissolved all the other leagues 
(like the Boeotian, of which Thebes was the head), but that 
they did not affect her own contiol over her subject towns in 
Laconia, nor weaken the Peloponnesian confederacy. 

Thus Persia and Sparta again conspired to betray Hellas. 
Persia helped Sparta to keep the European Greek states divided 
and weak, as they were before the Persian War ; and Sparta 
helped Persia to recover her old authority over the Asiatic 
Greeks. By this iniquity the tottering Spartan supremacy was 
bolstered up a few years longer. 

Of course the shame of betraying the Asiatic Greeks must be shared 
by the enemies of Sparta, who had used Persian aid against her ; but the 
policy had been first introduced by Sparta in seeking Persian assistance in 
412 against Athens (§ 250) ; and so far no other Greek state had offered 
to surrender Hellenic cities to barbarians as the price of such aid. 

261. Spartan Aggressions. — Sparta had saved her power by 
infamy. She used it, with the same brutal cunning as in the 
past, to keep down the beginnings of greatness elsewhere in 
Greece. 

Thus, Arcadia had shown signs of growing strength ; but 
Sparta now broke up the leading city, Mantinea, and dispersed 
the inhabitants in villages. In Chalcidice, the city of Olynthus 
had organized its neighbors into a promising league. A Spartan 
army compelled this league to break up. While on the way to 
Chalcidice, part of this army, by treachery, in time of peace, 
seized the citadel of Thebes. And, when the Athenian naval 
power began to revive, a like treacherous, though unsuccessful, 
attempt was made upon the Piraeus. 

262. Thebes a Democracy. — These high-handed outrages 
were to react upon the offender. First there came a revolution 
at Thebes. The Spartan garrison there had set up an oligarchic 
Theban government which had driven crowds of citizens into 



256 



SPARTAN SUPREMACY 



[§26b 



exile. Athens received them, just as Thebes had sheltered 
Athenian fugitives in the time of the Thirty Tyrants ; and 
from Athens Pelopidas, a leader of the exiles, struck the return 
blow.i In 379, Thebes was surprised and seized by the exiles, 
and the government passed into the hands of the democrats. 
Then Thebes and Athens joined in a new war upon Sparta. 

263. Leuctra ; the Overthrow of Sparta. — The war dragged 
along for some years ; and in 371 e.g., the contending parties, 

wearied with fruitless 
strife, concluded peace. 
But when the treaty was 
being signed, Epaminon- 
das, the Theban repre- 
sentative, demanded the 
right to sign for all Boeo- 
tia, as Sparta had signed 
for all Laconia. Athens 
would not support Thebes 
in this position. So 
Thebes was excluded 




from the peace; and 
Sparta turned to crush her. A powerful army at once invaded 
Boeotia, — and met with an overwhelming defeat by a smaller 
Theban force at Leuctra. 

This amazing result was due to the military genius of Epam- 
inondas. Hitherto the Greeks had fought in long lines, from 
eight to twelve men deep. Epaminondas adopted a new 
arrangement that marks a step in warfare. He massed his 
best troops in a solid column, fifty men deep, on the left, oppo- 
site the Spartan wing in the Peloponnesian army. His other 
troops were spread out as thin as possible. The solid phalanx 

1 The story is full of adventure. Pelopidas and a number of other daring 
young men among the exiles returned secretly to Thebes, and, through the aid 
of friends there, were admitted (disguised as dancing girls) to a banquet 
where the Theban oligarchs were already deep in wine. They killed the 
drunken traitors with their daggers. Then, running through the streets, they 
called the people to expel the Spartans from the citadel. 



§ 265] EPAMINONDAS 257 

was set in motion first ; then the thinner center and right wing 
advanced more slowly, so as to engage the attention of the 
enemy opposite, but not to come into action until the battle 
should have been won by the massed column. 

In short, Epaminondas massed his force against one part of 
the enemy. The weight of the Theban charge crushed through 
the Spartan line, and trampled it under. Four hundred of the 
seven hundred Spartans, with their king and with a thousand 
other Peloponnesian hoplites, went down in ten minutes^ 

The mere loss of men was fatal enough, now that Spartan 
citizenship was so reduced (the number of full citizens after 
this battle did not exceed fifteen hundred) ; but the effect upon 
the military prestige of Sparta was even more deadly. At one 
stroke Sparta sank into a second-rate power. None the less. 
Spartan character never showed to better advantage. Sparta 
was always greater in defeat than in victory, and she met her 
fate with heroic composure. The news of the overthrow did 
not interfere with a festival that was going on, and only the 
relatives of the survivors of the battle appeared in mourning. 

THEBAN SUPREMACY 

264. Epaminondas. — For nine years after Leuctra, Thebes 
was the head of Greece, This position she owed to her great 
leader, Epaminondas, whose life marks one of the fair heights 
to which human nature can ascend. Epaminondas was great 
as general, statesman, and philosopher ; but he was greatest as 
a man, lofty and lovable in nature. In his earlier days he had 
been looked upon as a dreamer; and when the oligarchs of 
Thebes drove out Pelopidas and other active patriots (§ 262), 
they only sneered while Epaminondas continued calmly to talk 
of liberty to the young. Later, it was recognized that, more 
than any other man, he had prepared the way for the over- 
throw of tyranny ; and after the expulsion of the oligarchs he 
became the organizer of the democracy. 

265. Sparta surrounded by Hostile Cities. — Epaminondas 
sought to do for Thebes what Pericles had done for Athens. 



258 THEBAN SUPREMACY [§266 

While he lived, success seemed possible. Unhappily, the few 
years remaining of his life he was compelled to give mainly to 
war. Laconia was repeatedly invaded. During these cam- 
paigns Epaminondas freed Messenia,^ on one side of Sparta, 
and organized Arcadia, on the other side, into a federal union, 
— so as to "surround Sparta with a perpetual blockade." 
The great Theban aided the Messenians to found a new cap- 
ital, Messene; and in Arcadia he restored Mantinea, which 
Sparta had destroyed (§ 261). In this district he also founded 
Megalopolis, or " the Great City," by combining forty scattered 
villages. 

266. Athens (jealous of Thebes) saved Sparta from complete 
destruction, but drew Theban vengeance upon herself. Epam- 
inondas built fleets, swept the Athenian navy from the seas, and 
made Euboea a Theban possession. Thessaly and Macedonia, 
too, were brought under Theban influence ; and the young Philip, 
prince of Macedon, spent some years in Thebes as a hostage. 

267. Mantinea. — The leadership of Thebes, however, rested 
solely on the supreme genius of her one great statesman, and 
it vanished at his death. In 362, for the fourth time, Epami- 
nondas marched against Sparta, and at Mantinea won another 
great victory. The Spartans had been unable to learn ; and 
went down again before the same tactics that had crushed them 
nine years earlier at Leuctra. Mantinea was the greatest land 
battle ever fought between Hellenes, and nearly all the states 
of Greece took part on one side or the other. But the victory 
bore no fruit ; for Epaminondas himself fell on the field, and 
his city sank at once to a slow and narrow policy. 

No state was left in Greece to assume leadership. A turbu- 
lent anarchy, in place of the stern Spartan rule, seemed the 
only fruit of the brief glory of the great Theban. 

268. Failure of the City-state. — The failure of the Greek cities to 
unite in larger states made it certain that sooner or later they must fall 

1 Messenia had been a mere district of Laconia for nearly two centuries 
and a half. Its loss to/^k from Sparta more than a third of her whole territory. 



§270] MACEDON AND PHILIP II 259 

to some outside power. Sparta and Thebes (with Persian aid) had 
been able to prevent Athenian leadership ; Thebes and Athens had 
overthrown Sparta ; Sparta and Athens had been able to check Thebes. 
Twenty years of anarchy followed ; and then Greece fell to a foreign 
master. On the north there had been growing up a nation-state; and 
the city-state could not stand before that stronger organization. 

For Further Beading. — Specially suggested: Davis' Beadings, 
Vol. I, Nos. 100 ("Thirty Tyrants"), 101 (Epaminondas), and 102 
(Leuctra). Plutarch's Lives (" Agesilaus " and " Pelopidas "). 

Additional: Bury, 514-628. 

THE MACEDONIAN CONQUEST 

269. Macedon. — The Macedonians were part of the " outer 
rim of the Greek race." They were still barbaric, and 
perhaps were mixed somewhat with non-Hellenic elements. 
Shortly before this time, they were only a loose union of 
tribes ; but Philip II (§ 270) had now consolidated them into 
a real nation. The change was so recent that Alexander the 
Great, a little later, could say to his army : — 

" My father, Philip, found you a roving, destitute people, without fixed 
homes and without resources, most of you clad in the skins of animals, 
pasturing a few sheep among the mountains, and, to defend these, waging 
a luckless warfare with the Illyrians, the Triballans, and the Thracians 
on your borders. He gave you the soldier's cloak to replace the skins, 
and led you down from the mountains into the plain, making you a 
worthy match in war against the barbarians on your frontier, so that you 
no longer trusted to your strongholds, so much as to your own valor, 
for safety. He made you to dwell in cities and provided you with 
wholesome laws and institutions. Over those same barbarians, who 
before had plundered you and carried off as booty both yourselves and 
your substance, he made you masters and lords." ^ 

270. Philip II of Macedon is one of most remarkable men in 
history. 2 He was ambitious, crafty, sagacious, persistent, un- 
scrupulous, an unfailing judge of character, and a marvelous 
organizer. He set himself to make his people true Greeks by 

1 See the rest of this passage in Davis' Readings, Vol. I, No. 107. 

2 Wheeler's characterization, Alexander the Great, 5-7, is admirable. 



260 



MACEDONIAN CONQUEST 



[§271 



making them the leaders of Greece. He was determined to 
secure that headship for which Athens, Sparta, and Thebes had 
striven in vain. 

271. Philip's Methods. — At Philip's accession Macedon was 
still a poor country without a good harbor. The first need 

was an outlet on the sea. 
Philip found one by con- 
quering the Chalcidic pen- 
insula. Then his energy 
developed the gold mines 
of the district until they 
furnished him a yearly 
revenue of a thousand tal- 
ents — as large as that of 
Athens at her greatest 
power. 

Next Philip turned to 
Greece itself. Here he 
used an adroit mingling of 
cunning, bribery, and force. 
In all Greek states, among 
the pretended patriot statesmen, there were secret servants in 
his pay. He set city against city ; and the constant tendency 
to quarrels among the Greeks played into his hands. 

272. Demosthenes. — The only man who saw clearly the 
designs of Philip, and constantly opposed them, was Demos- 
thenes the Athenian. Demosthenes was the greatest orator 
of Greece. To check Macedonia became the one aim of his 
life ; and the last glow of Greek independence flames up in 
his passionate appeals to Athens that she defend Hellas 
against Macedon as she had once done against Persia. 

*' Suppose that you have one of the gods as surety that Philip will 
leave you untouched, in the name of all the gods, it is a shame for you 
in ignorant stupidity to sacrifice the rest of Hellas I " 

The noble orations (the Philippics) by which Demosthenes 
sought to move the Athenian assembly to action against Philip 




Philip II. 
From a gold medallion by Alexander. 



§273] 



THE MACEDONIAN ARMY 



261 



are still unrivaled in literature,^ but they had no permanent 
practical effect. 

273. The Macedonian Army. — The most important work of 
Philip was his army. This was as superior to the four-months 




SCALE OF MILES 



Macedonia at the beginning 
of PhiUp'B Reign. 

Territory added by PliiUp 
before Cbaeronea. 






6 ^£ 



M 



..L.POATES ENQ.OO., N.y. 



citizen armies of Hellas as Philip's steady and secret diplomacy 
was superior to the changing councils of a popular assembly. 
The king's wealth enabled him to keep a disciplined force 
ready for action. He had become familiar with the Theban 
phalanx during his stay at Thebes as a boy (§ 266). Now he 

1 Cf. § 223. Special report : Demosthenes. 



262 MACEDONIAN CONQUEST [§274 

enlarged and improved it, so that the ranks presented five 
rows of bristling spears projecting beyond the front soldier. 
The flanks were protected by light-armed troops, and the 
Macedonian nobles furnished the finest of cavalry. 

At the same time a field " artillery " first appears, made up 
of curious engines able to throw darts and great stones three 
hundred yards. Such a mixture of troops, and on a permanent 
footing, tvas altogether novel. Philip created the instrument 
with which his son was to conquer the world. 

274. Chaeronea and the Congress of Corinth. — In 338 b.c. 
Philip threw off the mask and invaded Greece. Athens and 
Thebes combined against him, — to be hopelessly crushed at 
the battle of Chaeronea. Then a congress of Greek states at 
Corinth recognized Macedonia as the head of Greece, It was 
agreed that the separate states should keep their local self- 
government, but that foreign matters, including war and peace, 
should be committed to Philip. Philip was also declared gen- 
eral in chief of the armies of Greece for a war against Persia. 

275. The History of Hellas Ended. — Thus Philip posed, 
wisely, not as the conqueror, but as the champion of Greece 
against the foe of all Hellenes. He showed a patient mag- 
nanimity, too, toward fickle Greek states, and in particular he 
strove to reconcile Athens. He was wise enough to see that 
he needed, not reluctant subjects, but willing followers. 

None the less, the history of Hellas had closed. Greece there- 
after, until a hundred years ago, was only a province of this 
or that foreign power. The history of Hellenic culture, however, 
wa-s not closed. The Macedonian conquest was to spread that 
civilization over the vast East. The history of Hellas merges 
in the history of a wider Hellenistic world. 



For Further Eeading. — Specially suggested : Davis' Readings, 
Vol. I, Nos. 103-107. Bury, ch. xvi ; or (better if accessible) Wtieeler's 
Alexander the Great, 14-18 and 64-80. 

Exercise. — Review ttie period from Aegospotami to Chaeronea by 
" catch-words " (see Exercise on page 186). 



PART III 

THE GKAEOO -ORIENTAL ¥OELD 

With Alexander the stage of Greek influence spreads across the worlds 
and Greece becomes only a small item in the heritage of the Greeks. 

— Mahafft. 

The seed-ground of European civilization is neither Greece nor the 
Orient, but a world joined of the two. — Benjamin Ide Wheeler. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE MINGLING OF EAST AND WEST 

276. Alexander the Great. — Philip of Macedon was assassi- 
nated in 336, two years after Chaeronea. He was just ready 
to begin the invasion of Asia ; and his work was taken up by 
his son Alexander. 

Father and son were both among the greatest men in his* 
tory, but they were very unlike. In many ways Alexander 
resembled his mother, Olympias, a semi-barbaric princess from 
Epirus, — a woman of intense passions and generous enthusi- 
asms. Says Benjamin Ide Wheeler : — 

" While it was from his father that Alexander inherited his sagacious 
insight into men and things, and his brilliant capacity for timely and 
determined action, it was to his mother that he undoubtedly owed that 
passionate warmth of nature which betrayed itself not only in the furious 
outbursts of temper occasionally characteristic of him, but quite as much 
in a romantic fervor of attachment and love for friends, a delicate tender- 
ness of sympathy for the weak, and a princely largeness and generosity 
of soul toward all, that made him so deeply beloved of men and so 
enthusiastically followed." — Alexander the Great, 5. 

263 



264 GREEK CONQUESTS IN THE ORIENT [§ 277 

As a boy, Alexander had been fearless, self-willed, and rest> 
less, with fervent affections.^ These traits marked his whole 
career. He was devoted to Homer, and he knew the Iliad by 
heart. Homer's Achilles he claimed for an ancestor and took for 
his ideal. His later education was directed by Aristotle (§ 315), 
and from this great teacher he learned to admire Greek art and 
science and to come closely into sympathy with the best 
Greek culture. 

277. Restoration of Order. — At his father's death Alexander 
was a stripling of twenty years. He was to prove a rare mili- 




Alexander. Alexander in a Lion-hunt. 

Two sides of a gold medallion of Tarsus. 

tary genius. He never lost a battle and never refused an 
engagement ; and, on occasion, he could be shrewd and adroit in 
diplomacy ; but at this time he was known only as a rash boy. 
No one thought that he could hold together the empire that 
had been built up by the force and cunning of the great Philip. 
Revolt broke out everywhere; but the young king showed 
himself at once both statesman and general. With marvelous 
rapidity he struck crushing blows on this side and on that. A 
hurried expedition restored order in Greece ; the savage tribes 
of the north were quieted by a rapid march beyond the Danube; 

1 Special report : anecdotes from Plutarch regarding Alexander's boyhood. 



§278] 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT 



265 



then, turning on rebellious Illyriac Alexander forced the 
mountain passes and overran the country. 

Meanwhile it was reported in the south that Alexander was 
killed or defeated among the barbarians. Insurrection again 
blazed forth ; but with forced marches he suddenly appeared a 
second time in Greece, falling with swift and terrible vengeance 
upon Thebes, the center of 
the revolt. The city was 
taken by storm and leveled 
to the ground, except the 
house of Pindar (§ 155), 
while the thirty thousand 
survivors of the popula- 
tion were sold as slaves. 
The other states were ter- 
rified into abject submis- 
sion, and were treated 
generously. Then, with 
his authority firmly re- 
established, Alexander 
turned, as the champion of 
Hellas, to attack Persia. 

278. The Persian Cam- 
paigns. — In the spring 
of 334 B.C. Alexander 
crossed the Hellespont 
with thirty-five thousand 

disciplined troops. The army was quite enough to scatter any 
Oriental force, and as large as any general could then handle 
in long and rapid marches in a hostile country ; but its size 
contrasts strangely with that of the huge horde Xerxes had 
led against Greece a century and a half before. 

The route of march and the immense distances traversed can 
be best traced by the map. The conquest of the main empire 
occupied five years, and the story falls into three distinct 
chapters, each marked by a world-famous battle. 




Alexander. 

The " Copenhagen " head. Probably by a 

pupil of the sculptor Skopas. 



266 GREEK CONQUESTS IN THE ORIENT [§ 278 

a. Asia Minor : Battle of the Granicus. — The Persian 
satraps of Asia Minor met the invaders at the Granicus, a 
small stream in ancient Troyland. With the personal rash- 
ness that was the one blot upon his military skill, Alexander 
himself led the Macedonian charge through the river and up 
the steep bank into the midst of the Persian cavalry, where 
he barely escaped death. The Persian nobles fought, as 
always, with gallant self-devotion, but in the end they were 
utterly routed. Then a body of Greek mercenaries in Persian 
pay was surrounded and cut down to a man. No quarter was 
to be given Hellenes fighting as traitors to the cause of Hellas. 

The victory cost Alexander only 120 men, and it made him 
master of all Asia Minor. During the next few months he set 
up democracies in the Greek cities, and organized the govern- 
ment of the various provinces. 

b. The Mediterranean Coast : Battle of Issus. — To strike at 
the heart of the empire at once would have been to leave be- 
hind him a large Persian fleet, to encourage revolt in Greece. 
Alexander wisely determined to secure the entire coast, and 
so protect his rear, before marching into the interior. Ac- 
cordingly he turned south, just after crossing the mountains 
that separate Asia Minor from Syria, to reduce Phoenicia and 
Egypt. Meantime the Persians had gathered a great army; 
but at Issus Alexander easily overthrew their host of six hun- 
dred thousand men led by King Darius in person. Darius 
allowed himself to be caught in a narrow defile between the 
mountains and the sea. The cramped space made the vast 
numbers of the Persians an embarrassment to themselves. 
They soon became a huddled mob of fugitives, and the Mace- 
donians wearied themselves with slaughter. 

Alexander now assumed the title, King of Persia. The siege 
of Tyre (§ 57) detained him a year ; but Egypt welcomed him 
as a deliverer, and by the close of 332, all the sea power of the 
Eastern Mediterranean was his} While in Egypt he showed his 

1 Carthage dominated the western waters of the Mediterranean — beyond 
Italy ; but she had nothing to do with naval rivalries farther east. 



§279] PERSIAN CAMPAIGNS 267 

constructive genius by founding Alexandria at one of the 
mouths of the Nile — a city destined for many centuries to 
be a commercial and intellectual center for the world, where 
before there had been only a haunt of pirates. 

c. The Tigris-Euphrates District : Battle of Arhela. — Darius 
now proposed that he and Alexander should divide the empire 
between them. ReJ-ecting this offer contemptuously, Alexander 
took up his march for the interior. Following the ancient 
route from Egypt to Assyria (§ 6), he met Darius near Arhela, 
not far from ancient Nineveh. The Persians are said to have 
numbered a million men. Alexander purposely allowed them 
choice of time and place, and by a third decisive VictOYj proved 
the hopelessness of their resistance. Darius never gathered 
another army. The capitals of the empire — Babylon, Susa, 
Ecbatana, Persepolis — surrendered, with enormous treasure 
in gold and silver, and the Persian Empire had fallen (331 e.g.). 

The Granicus, Issus, and Arbela rank with Marathon, Salamis, and 
Plataea, as " decisive " battles. The earlier set of three great battles 
gave Western civilization a chance to develop. This second set of three 
battles resulted in a new type of civilization, springing from a union of 
East and West. No battle between these two periods had anywhere 
near so great a significance. 

279. Campaigns in the Far East. — The next six years went, 
however, to much more desperate warfare in the eastern moun- 
tain regions, and in the Punjab.^ Alexander carried his arms 
as far east from Babylon as Babylon was from Macedonia. 
He traversed great deserts ; subdued the warlike and princely 
chiefs of Bactria and Sogdiana up to the steppes of the wild 
Tartar tribes beyond the Oxus; twice forced the passes 
of the Hindukush (a feat almost unparalleled); conquered 
the valiant mountaineers of what is now Afghanistan; and 
led his army into the fertile and populous plains of north- 
ern India. He crossed the Indus^ won realms beyond the 
ancient Persian province of the Punjab, and planned still 

1 A district of northern India. 



268 TfiE HELLENISTIC AGE [§280 

more distant empires; but on the banks of the Hyphasis 
River his faithful Macedonians refused to be led farther, to 
waste away in inhuman perils ; and the chagrined conqueror 
was compelled to return to Babylon. This city he made his 
capital, and here he died of a fever two years later (323 e.g.) in 
the midst of preparations to extend his conquests both east 
and west.^ These last years, however, were given mainly to 
organizing the empire (§ 280). 

280. Merging of East and West. — Alexander began his con- 
quest to avenge the West upon the East. But he came to see 
excellent and noble qualities in Oriental life, and he rose 
rapidly to a broader view. He aimed no longer to hold a 
world in subjection by the force of a small conquering tribe 
but rather to mold Persian and Greek into 07ie people on terms 
of equality. He wished to marry the East and the West, — • 
" to bring them together into a composite civilization, to which 
each should contribute its better elements." 

Persian youth were trained by thousands in Macedonian 
fashion to replace the veterans of Alexander's army ; Persian 
nobles were welcomed at court and given high offices ; and the 
government of Asia was intrusted largely to Asiatics, on a 
system similar to that of Darius the Great (§ 76). Alexander 
himself adopted Persian manners and customs, and he bribed 
and coaxed his officers and soldiers to do the like. All this 
was part of a deliberate design to encourage the fusion of the 
two peoples. The Macedonians protested jealously, and even 
rebelled; but were quickly reduced to obedience. 

" The dream of his youth melted away, but a new vision in larger 
perspective arose with ever strengthening outlines in its place. The 
champion of the West against the East faded in mist, and the form of a 
world monarch, standing above the various worlds of men and belong- 
ing to none, but molding them all into one, emerged in its stead." — 
Wheeler, Alexander the Great, 376. 



1 Topic : anecdotes of Alexander's later years ; the change in his character. 
Wheeler's Alexander gives an ardent defense. 



§282] 



GREEK CITIES IN THE EAST 



269 



281. Hellenism the Active Element. — ^ At the same time Alex- 
ander saw that to fulfill this mission he must throw open the 
East to Greek ideas. The races might mingle their blood ; the 
Greek might learn much from the Orient, and in the end be 
absorbed by it i but the thought and art of little Hellas, with its 
active energy^ must leaven 
Ihe vast passive mass of 
the East. 

One great measure, for 
this end, was the found- 
ing of chains of cities, to 
bind the conquests to- 
gether and to become the 
homes of Hellenic influ- 
ence. Alexander himself 
built seventy of these 
towns (usually called from 
his name, like the Alex- 
andria in Egypt). Their 
walls sprang up under the 
pick and spade of the sol- 
diery along the lines of 
march. One great city, we 
are told, walls and houses, 
was completed in twenty 
days. Sometimes these places were mere garrison towns on dis- 
tant frontiers, but oftener they became mighty emporiums at the 
intersection of great lines of trade. There was an Alexandria 
on the Jaxartes, on the Indus, on the Euphrates, as well as on 
the Nile. The sites were chosen wisely, and many of these cities 
remain great capitals to this day, like Herat and Kandahar.^ 

282. Greek Colonies in the Orient. — This building of Greek 
cities was continued by Alexander's successors. Once more, 
and on a vaster scale than ever before, the Greek genius for 




Alexander as Apollo. 
Now in the Capitoline Museum. 



1 Iskandar, or Kandahar, is an Oriental form of the Greek name Alexander. 



270 THE HELLENISTIC AGE [§282 

colonization found vent. Each new city had a Greek nucleus. 
Usually this consisted only of worn-out veterans, left behind as 
a garrison ; but enterprising youth, emigrating from old Hellas, 
continued to reinforce the Greek element. The native village 
people roundabout were gathered in to make the bulk of the 
inhabitants ; and these also soon took on Greek character. 
From scattered, ignorant rustics, they became artisans and 
merchants, devotedly attached to Greek rule and zealous 
disciples of Greek culture. 

The cities were all built on a large and comfortable model. 
They were well paved. They had ample provision for light- 
ing by night, and a good water supply. They had police 
arrangements, and good thoroughfares. Even in that despotic 
East, they received extensive privileges and enjoyed a large 
amount of self-government : they met in their own assemblies, 
managed their own courts, and collected their own taxes^ 
For centuries they made the backbone of Hellenism throughout 
the world. Greek was the ordinary speech of their streets ; 
Greek architecture built their temples, and Greek sculpture 
adorned them ; they celebrated Greek games and festivals ; 
and, no longer in little Hellas alone, but over the whole East, 
in Greek theaters, vast audiences were educated by the plays 
of Euripides. The culture developed by a small people became 
the heritage of a vast world. 

The unity of this widespread civilization cannot be insisted upon too 
strongly. Political unity was soon lost ; but the oneness of culture en- 
dured for centuries, and kept its character even after Roman conquest. 
Over all that vast area there was for all cultivated men a common lan- 
guage, a common literature, a common mode of thought. The mingling 
of East and West produced a new civilization, — a Graeco-Oriental world. 

In our own day. Western civilization is again transforming the Orient, 
leaving the railroad, the telegraph, free schools, and republican govern- 
ment in its line of march, — a march that reaches even farther than 
Alexander ever did. Between Alexander's day and ours, no like phe- 
nomena has been seen on any scale so vast. But this time the West 
lioes not give so large a part of its blood to the East ; nor does the East 
react upon the West, as it did after Alexander (§ 283) . 



§285] REACTION UPON GREECE 271 

283. Reaction upon Hellas. — Hellas itself lost importance. 
It was drained of its intellect and enterprise, because adven 
turous young Greeks wandered to the East, to win fortune and 
distinction. And the victorious Hellenic civilization was 
modified by its victory, even in its old home. Sympathies 
were broadened. The barrier between Greek and barbarian 
faded away. Greek ideais were affected by Oriental ideals. 

In particular, we note two forms of reaction upon Greek 
life, — the economic and the scientific (§§ 284, 285). 

284. Economic Results. — Wealth was enormously augmented. 
The vast treasure of gold and silver which Oriental monarchs 
had hoarded in secret vaults was thrown again into circulation, 
and large sums were brought back to Europe by returning 
adventurers. These adventurers brought back also an increased 
desire for Oriental luxuries. Thus, trade was stimulated; a 
higher standard of living arose; manifold new comforts and 
enjoyments adorned and enriched life. 

Somewhat later, perhaps as a result of this increase of wealth, 
there came other less fortunate changes. Extremes of wealth 
and poverty appeared side by side^ as in our modern society : the 
great cities had their hungry, sullen, dangerous mobs; and 
socialistic agitation began on a large scale. These last phe- 
nomena, however, concerned only the closing days of the 
Hellenic world, just before its absorption by Rome. 

285. Scientific Results. — A new era of scientific progress 
began, Alexander himself had the zeal of an explorer, and one 
of the most important scientific expeditions ever sent out by 
any government is due to him while he was in India. When 
he first touched the Indus, he thought it the upper course of 
the Nile; but he built a great fleet of two thousand vessels, 
sailed down the river to the Indian Ocean, and then sent his 
friend Nearchus to explore that sea and to trace the coast to 
the mouth of the Euphrates. After a voyage of many months, 
Nearchus reached Babylon. He had mapped the coast line, 
made frequent landings, and collected a mass of observations 
and a multitude of strange plants and animals. 



272 THE HELLENISTIC AGE [§286 

Like collections were made by Alexander at other times, to 
be sent to his old instructor Aristotle, who embodied the results 
of his study upon them in a Natural History of fifty volumes. 
The Greek intellect, attracted by the marvels in the new world 
opened before it, turned to scientific observation and arrange- 
ment of facts. This impulse was intensified by the discovery 
of a long series of astronomical observations at Babylon (§ 49) 
and of the historical records and traditions of the Orientals, 
reaching back to an antiquity of which the Greeks had not 
dreamed. The active Greek mind, seizing upon this confused 
wealth of material, began to put in order a great system of 
knowledge about man and nature. 

286. Summary. — Thus the mingling of East and West gave 
a product different from either of the old factors. Alexander's 
victories are not merely events in military history. They 
make an epoch in the onward march of humanity. They en- 
larged the map of the world once more, and they made these 
vaster spaces the home of a higher culture. Tliey grafted the 
new West upon the old East, — a graft from which sprang the 
plant of our later civilization, 

Alexander died at thirty-two, and his empire at once fell 
into fragments. Had he lived to seventy, it is hard to say 
what he might not have done to provide for lasting political 
union, and perhaps even to bring India and China into the 
current of our civilization. 

" No single personality, excepting the carpenter's son of Nazareth, hav 
done so much to make the world we live in what it is as Alexander of 
Macedon. He leveled the terrace upon which European history built. 
Whatever lay within the range of his conquests contributed its part to 
form that Mediterranean civilization, which under Rome's administration 
became the basis of European life. What lay beyond was as if on an» 
other planet." — Wheeler, Alexander the Great. 



For Further Reading. — Specially suggested : Davis' Beadings^ 
Vol. I, Nos. 108-118 (24 pages, mostly from Arrian, a second century 
writer and the earliest authority who has left us an account of Alexander). 
Bury, 736-836, or (better, if accessible) Wheeler's Alexander the Great. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD 

THE POLITICAL STORY 

287. Wars of the Succession. — Alexander left no heir old 
enough to succeed him. On his deathbed, asked to whom he 
would leave his throne, he replied grimly, " To the strongest." 
As he foresaw, at his death his leading generals instantly 
began to strive with each other for his realm ; and for nearly 
half a century the political history of the civilized world was 
a horrible welter of war and assassination. These struggles 
are called the Wars of the Succession (323-280 b.c). 

288. The Third Century B.C. — Finally, about 280 b.c, some- 
thing like a fixed order emerged ; then followed a period of 
sixty years, known as the Glory of Hellenism. The Hellenistic ^ 
world reached from the Adriatic to the Indus, and consisted 
of: (1) three great kingdoms, Syria, Egypt, and Macedonia; 
(2) a broken chain of smaller monarchies scattered from Media 
to Epirus^ (some of them, like Pontus and Armenia, under 
dynasties descended from Persian princes) ; and (3) single free 
cities like Byzantium. Some of these free cities united into 
leagues, which sometimes became great military powers — like 
one famous confederation under the leadership of Rhodes. 

289. Resemblance to Modern Europe. — Politically in many 
ways all the vast district bore a striking resemblance to modem 
Europe. There was a like division into great and small states, 
ruled by dynasties related by intermarriages ; there was a com- 
mon civilization, and a recognition of common interests as 

1 Hellenic refers to the old Hellas ; Hellenistic, to the wider world, of mixed 
Hellenic and Oriental character, after Alexander. 

2 There is a full enumeration in Mahatt'y's Alexander's Empire, 90-92. 

273 



274 



THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD 



[§290 



against outside barbarism or as opposed to any non-Hellenic 
power, like Rome ; and there were jealousies and conflicts similar 
to those in Europe in recent centuries. There were shifting 
alliances, and many wars to preserve "the balance of power '^ 
or to secure trade advantages. There was a likeness to modern 
society, too, as we shall see more fully later, in the refinement 
of the age, in its excellences and its vices, the great learning, 




The Dying Gaul. 
Sometimes incorrectly called the Dying Gladiator. 



the increase in skill and in criticism. (Of course the age was 
vastly inferior to that of modern Europe.) 

290. The Invasion by the Gauls. — It follows that the history 
of the third century is a history of many separate countries 
(§§ 292 ff.), but there was one event of general interest. This 
was the great Gallic invasion of 278 b.c. It was the first 
formidable barbarian attack upon the Eastern world since the 
Scythians had been chastised by the early Persian kings (§ 75). 

A century before, hordes of these same Gauls had devastated 
northern Italy and sacked the rising city of Rome. Now 
(fortunately not until the ruinous Wars of the Succession were 



§ 292] SYRIA 275 

over) they poured into exhausted Macedonia, penetrated into 
Greece as far as Delphi, and, after horrible ravages there, car- 
ried havoc into Asia. For a long period every great sovereign 
of the Hellenistic world turned his arms upon them, until they 
were finally settled as peaceful colonists in a region of Asia 
Minor, which took the name Galatia. 

Perhaps we are most interested in noting that the Hellenistic 
patriotism roused by the attack — like that in little Hellas 
two hundred years earlier by the Persian invasions (§ 187) — 
played a part in a splendid outburst of art and literature which 
followed. The Dying Gaul and the Apollo Belvidere,^ among 
the noblest surviving works of the period, commemorate inci= 
dents in the struggle. 

291. Decline of the Hellenistic World. — About 220, the wide- 
spread, Hellenistic world began a rapid decline. In that one 
year the thrones of Syria, Egypt, and Macedonia fell to youth- 
ful heirs ; and all three of these new monarchs showed a 
degeneracy which is common in Oriental ruling families after 
a few generations of greatness. Just before this year, as we 
shall see (§ 310), the last promise of independence in Greece 
itself had flickered out. Just after it, there began an attack 
from Eome, which was finally to absorb this Hellenistic East 
into a still larger world. 

Before turning to the growth of Rome we will note (i) the history, 
in brief, of the leading Hellenistic states from Alexander to the Roman 
sway; (2) with more detail, an interesting attempt at federal gov- 
ernment in Greece itself; and (3) the character of Hellenistic culture 
in this period. 

SOME SINGLE EASTERN STATES IN OUTLINE 

292. Syria was the largest of the great monarchies. It com- 
prised most of Alexander's empire in Asia, except the small 

1 The Gauls made a raid upon the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, but in some 
way were routed in disorder. The legend arose that Apollo himself drove 
them away with a thunderbolt. The statue, the Apollo Belvidere, is sup- 
posed to represent the god in the act of defending his temple. 



276 



THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD 



[§292 



states in Asia Minor. In the Wars of the Succession, it fell 
to Seleucus, one of the Macedonian generals ; and his descend- 
ants (Seleucidae) ruled it to the Roman conquest. They 




* 



Pylon of Ptolemy III at Karnak. The reliefs represent tliat couciueroi 
in religious thanksgiving, sacrificing, praying, offering trophies to the gods. 
At the top is the " conventionalized " winged sundisk. Cf. page 36. Not« 
the general likeness to the older Egyptian architecture. 

excelled all other successors of Alexander in building cities 
and extending Greek culture over distant regions. Seleucus 
alone founded seventy-five cities. 



§294] EGYPT 277 

About 250 B.C. Indian princes reconquered the Punjab, and 
the Parthians arose on the northeast, to cut off the Bactrian 
provinces from the rest of the Greek world. Thus Syria 
shrank to the area of the ancient Assyrian Empire, — the 
Euphrates-Tigris basin and old Syria proper, — but it was still, 
in common opinion, the greatest world-power, until its might 
was shattered by Rome in 190 b.c. at Magnesia. 

293. Egypt included Cyprus, and possessed a vague control 
over many coast towns of Syria and Asia Minor. Immedi- 
ately upon Alexander's death, one of his generals, Ptolemy, 
chose Egypt for his province. His descendants, all known as 
Ptolemies, ruled the land until Cleopatra yielded to Augustus 
Caesar (30 e.g.), though it had become a Eoman protectorate ^ 
somewhat before that time. 

The early Ptolemies were wise, energetic sovereigns. They 
aimed to make Egypt the commercial emporium of the world, 
and to make their capital, Alexandria, the world's intellectual 
center. Ptolemy I established a great naval power, improved 
harbors, and built the first lighthouse. Ptolemy II (better 
known as Ptolemy Philadelphus) restored the old canal from 
the Red Sea to the Nile (§§ 28, 32), constructed roads, and 
fostered learning more than any great ruler before him (§ 319). 
Ptolemy III, in war with Syria, carried his arms to Bactria, 
and on his return mapped the coast of Arabia. Unlike earlier 
conquerors, he made no attempt to add territory to his realm 
by his victories, but only to secure trade advantages and a 
satisfactory peace. The later Ptolemies were weaklings or 
infamous monsters, guilty of every folly and crime; but even 
they continued to encourage learning. 

294. Macedonia ceased to be of great interest after the death 
of Alexander, except from a military point of view. Its posi- 
tion made it the first part of the Greek world to come into 
hostile contact with Rome. King Philip V joined Carthage 
in a war against Rome, a little before the year 200 b.c. 

1 That is, Rome had come to control all the relations of Egypt with foreign 
countries, although its government continued in name to be independent. 



278 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§ 295 

A series of struggles resulted ; and Macedonia, with parts oi 
Greece, became Roman in 146 b.c. 

295. Rhodes and Pergamum. — Among the many small states, 
two deserve special mention. Rhodes headed a confederacy 
of cities in the Aegean, and in the third century she became 
the leading commercial state of the Mediterranean. Her policy 
was one of peace and freedom of trade. Pergamum was a small 
Greek kingdom in Asia Minor, which the genius of its rulers 
(the Attalids) made prominent in politics and art. When the 
struggles with Rome began, Pergamum allied itself with that 
power, and long remained a favored state. 

THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE IN GREECE 

296. The Political Situation. — During the ruinous Wars of 
the Succession, Greece had been a favorite battleground for 
the great powers, Egypt, Syria, and Macedonia. Many cities 
were laid waste, and at the close of the contests, the country 
was left a vassal of Macedonia. To make her hold firmer, 
Macedonia set up tyrants in many cities. From this humilia- 
tion, Greece was lifted for a time by a new power, the Achaean 
League, which made a last effort for the freedom of Hellas. 

297. Earlier Confederations. — In early times, in the more 
backward parts of Greece, there had been many rude federa- 
tions of tribes, as among the Phocians and Locrians ; but in 
city-Greece no such union had long survived. 

The failure of the Confederacy of Delos has been told. During the 
Bupremacy of Sparta (about 400 b.c.) another still more interesting federal 
union appeared for a brief time on the northern coast of the Aegean. 
Olynthus, a leading Greek city in the Chalcidic district, built up a con- 
federacy of forty states, to check the Thracian and Macedonian barbarians, 
who had begun to stir themselves after the fall of the Athenian power. 
This league is called the Olynthian Confederacy. Its cities kept their 
local independence ; but they were merged, upon equal terms, into a large 
state more perfect than any preceding federal union. The citizens of any 
one city could intermarry with those of any other, and they could dwell 
and acquire landed property anywhere within the league ; while no one 
city had superior .privileges over the others, as Athens had had in the 



§299] THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE 279 

Delian League. After only a short life, as we have seen, this promising 
union was crushed ruthlessly by jealous Sparta (§ 261). 

298. Aetolian League. — Now, after 280 b.c, two of the an- 
cient tribal federations which had survived in obscure corners 
of Greece — Achaea and Aetolia — began to play leading parts 
in history. 

Of these two, the Aetolian League was the less important. 
Originally it seems to have been a loose union of mountain 
districts for defense. But the Wars of the Successior made 
the Aetolians famous as bold soldiers of fortune, and the 
wealth brought home by the thousands of such adventurers 
led to a more aggressive policy on the part of the league. The 
people remained, however, rude mountaineers, " brave, boast- 
ful, rapacious, and utterly reckless of the rights of others." 
They played a part in saving southern Greece from the invad- 
ing Gauls (§ 290), but their confederacy became more and 
more an organization for lawless plunder. 

299. Achaean League : Origin. — In Achaea there was a nobler 
history. A league of small towns grew into a formidable 
power, freed most of Greece, brought much of it into a federal 
union, with all members on equal terms, and for a glorious 
half century maintained Greek freedom successfully. 

The story offers curious contrasts to the period of Athenian leadership 
two hundred years earlier. Greece could no longer hope to become one 
of the great military powers ; we miss the intellectual brilliancy, too, of 
the fifth century ; but the period affords even more instructive political 
lessons — especially to Americans, interested, as we are, in federal in- 
stitutions. The most important political matter in Greek history in 
the third century B.C. is this experiment in federal government. 

The people of Achaea were unwarlike, and not very enter- 
prising or intellectual. In all Greek history they produced 
no great writer or great artist. They did not even furnish 
great statesmen, — for all the heroes of the league were to 
come from outside Achaea itself. Still, the Achaean League 
is one of the most remarkable federations in history before 
the adoption of the present Constitution of the United States, 



280 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§ 300 

We know that there was some kind of a confederation in 
Achaea as early as the Persian War. Under the Macedonian 
rule, the league was destroyed and tyrants were set up in 
several of the ten Achaean cities. But, about 280 B.C., four 
small towns revived the ancient confederacy. This union 
swiftly drove out the tyrants from the neighboring towns, and 
absorbed all Achaea. One generous incident belongs to this 
part of the story: Iseas, tyrant of Cerynea, voluntarily gave 
up his power and brought his city into the league. 

So far Macedonia had not interfered. The Gallic invasion 
just at this time spread ruin over all the north of Hellas, 
and probably prevented hostile action by the Macedonian 
king. Thus the federation became securely established. 

300. Government. — During this period the constitution was 
formed. The chief authority of the league was placed in a 
Federal Assembly. This was not a representative body, but a 
mass meeting: it was made up of all citizens of the league 
who chose to attend. To prevent the city where the meeting 
was held from outweighing the others, each city was given 
only one vote. That is, ten or twelve men — or even one man 
— from a distant town cast the vote of that city, and counted 
just as much as several hundred from a city nearer the place 
of meeting. The Assembly was held twice a year, for only 
three days at a time, and in some small city, so that a great 
capital should not overshadow the rest of the league. It chose 
yearly a Council of Ten, a Senate, and a General (or president), 
with various subordinate officers. The same General could not 
be chosen two years in succession. 

This government raised federal taxes and armies, and rep- 
resented the federation in all foreign relations. Each city 
remained a distinct state, with full control over all its internal 
matters — but no city of itself could make peace or war, enter 
into alliances, or send ambassadors to another state. That is, 
the Achaean League was a true federation, and not a mere 
alliance ; and its cities corresponded closely to the American 
States under our old Articles of Confederation. 



5 302] THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE 281 

301. Faults in the Government. — In theory, the constitution 
was extremely democratic : in practice, it proved otherwise. 
Men attended the Assembly at their own expense. Any 
Achaean might come, but only the wealthy could afford to do sOy 
as a regular thing. Moreover, since the meetings of the As- 
sembly were few and brief, great authority had to be left to 
the General and Council. Any Achaean was eligible to these 
offices ; but poor men could hardly afford to take them, because 
they had no salaries. The Greek system of a primary assembly 
was suited only to single cities. A primary assembly made the 
city of Atheiis a perfect democracy : the same institution made 
the Achaean League hitensely aristocratic. 

The constitution was an advance over all other Greek federa- 
tions, but it had two other faults. (1) It made little use of 
representation, which no doubt would have seemed to the 
Achaeans undemocratic (§ 128), but which in practice would 
have enabled a larger part of the citizens to have a voice in 
the government; and (2) all cities, great or small, had the 
same vote. 

This last did not matter much at first, for the little Achaean 
towns did not differ greatly in size; but it became a plain 
injustice when the union came later to contain some of the 
most powerful cities in Greece. However, this feature was 
almost universal in early confederacies,^ and it was the prin- 
ciple of the American Union until 1789. 

302. First Expansion beyond Achaea. — The power of the Gen- 
eral was so great that the history of the league is the biog- 
raphy of a few great men. The most remarkable of these 

1 The one exception was the Lycian Confederacy in Asia Minor. The 
Lycians were not Greeks, apparently ; but they had taken on some Greek 
culture, and their federal union was an advance even upon the Achaean. 
It was absorbed by Rome, however, in 54 a.d., before it played an important 
part in history. In its Assembly, the vote was taken by cities, hut the cities 
were divided into three classes : the largest had three votes each, the next class 
two each, and the smallest only one. In the Philadelphia Convention, in 1787, 
several American statesmen wished to adopt this Lycian plan for our States 
in the Federal Congress 



282 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§303 

leaders was Aratus of Sicyon. Sicyon was a city just outside 
Achaea, to the east. It had been ruled by a vile and bloody 
tyrant, who drove many leading citizens into exile. Among 
these exiles was the family of Aratus. When a youth of 
twenty years (251 b.c.) Aratus planned, by a night attack, 
to overthrow the tyrant and free his native city. The daring 
venture was brilliantly successful; but it aroused the hatred 
of Macedon, and, to preserve the freedom so nobly won, 
Aratus brought Sicyon into the Achaean federation. 

303. Aratus.^ — Five years later, Aratus was elected Gen- 
eral of the league, and thereafter, he held that office each 
alternate year (as often as the constitution permitted) until 
his death, thirty-two years later. 

Aratus hated tyrants, and longed for a free and united 
Greece. He extended the league far beyond the borders of 
Achaea, and made it a champion of Hellenic freedom. He 
aimed at a noble end, but did not refuse base means. He was 
incorruptible himself, and he lavished his vast wealth on the 
union; but he was bitterly jealous of other leaders. With 
plenty of daiing in a dashing project, as he many times proved, 
he lacked nerve to command in battle, and he never won a real 
victory in the field. Still, despite his many defeats, his per- 
suasive power and his merits kept him the confidence of the 
union to the end of a long public life. 

304. Growth of the League ; Lydiadas. — In his second gen- 
eralship, Aratus freed Corinth from her Macedonian tyrant by 
a desperate night attack upon the garrison of the citadel. 
That powerful city then entered the union. So did Megara, 
which itself drove out its Macedonian garrison. The league 
now commanded the isthmus, and was safe from attack by 
Macedonia. Then several cities in Arcadia joined, and, in 
234, Megalopolis (§ 265) was added, — at that time one of the 
leading cities in Greece. 

1 Aratus is the first statesman known to us from his own memoirs. That 
work itself no longer exists, but Plutarch drew upon it for his Life, as did 
Polybius for his History. 



§305] 



THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE 



283 



Some years earlier the government of Megalopolis had be- 
come a tyranny : Lydiadas, a gallant and enthusiastic youth, 
seized despotic power, meaning to use it for good ends.^ The 
growth of the Achaean League opened a nobler way : Lydiadas 
resigned his tyranny, and as a private citizen brought the Great 
City into the union^ This act made him a popular hero, and 
Aratus became 



nis 
bitter foe. The new 
leader was the more 
lovable figure, — gen- 
erous and ardent, a 
soldier as well as a 
statesman. Several 
times he became Gen- 
eral of the league, but 
even in office he was 
often thwarted by the 
disgraceful trickery of 
the older man. 

305. The Freeing of 
Athens and Argos. — 
For many years Ara- 
tus had aimed to free 
Athens and Argos — 
sometimes by heroic 
endeavors, sometimes 
by assassination and 

poison. In 229, he succeeded. He bought the withdrawal of 
Macedonian troops from the Piraeus, and Athens became an 
ally, though not a member, of the league. ^ The tyrant of 
Argos was persuaded or frightened into following the example 




THEACHAEAN AND AETOLIAN LEAGUES, 
ABOUT 225 B.C. 



1 This was true of several tyrants in this age, and it was due no doubt in 
part to the new respect for monarchy since Alexander's time, and in part to 
new theories of government taught by the philosophers. 

2 The old historic cities, Athens and Sparta, could not be brought to loot 
favorably upon such a union. 



284 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§306 

of Iseas and Lydiadas, — as had happened meanwhile in many 
smaller cities, — and Argos joined the confederacy. 

The league now was the commanding power in Hellas. It 
included all Peloponnesus except Sparta and Elis. Moreover, 
all Greece south of Thermopylae had become free, — largely 
through the influence of the Achaean league, — and most of 
the states not inside the union had at least entered into friendly 
alliance with it. But now came a fatal conflict with Sparta. 

306. Need of Social Reforms in Sparta. — The struggle was 
connected with a great reform within that ancient city» The 
forms of the "Lycurgan" constitution had survived through 
many centuries, but now Sparta had only seven hundred full 
citizens (cf. §§ 254, 263). This condition brought about a 
violent agitation for reform. And about the year 243, Agis, 
one of the Spartan kings, set himself to do again what Lycurgus 
had done in legend. 

307. Agis was a youthful hero, full of noble daring and pure 
enthusiasm. He gave his own property to the state and per- 
suaded his relatives and friends to do the like. He planned 
to abolish all debts, and to divide the land among forty-five 
hundred Spartan " Inferiors " (§ 254) and fifteen thousand 
other Lacouians, so as to refound the state upon a broad and 
democratic basis. Agis could easily have won by violence; 
but he refused such methods, and sought his ends by con- 
stitutional means only. The conservative party rose in fierce 
opposition. By order of the Ephors, the young king was 
seized, with his noble mother and grandmother, and murdered 
in prison, — ''' the purest and noblest spirit that ever perished 
through deeming others as pure and noble as himself." 

308. Cleomenes. — But the ideals of the martyr lived on. 
His wife was forced to marry Cleomenes, son of the other king ; 
and, /rom her, this prince adopted the hopes of Agis. Cleomenes 
became king in 236. He had less of high sensitiveness and of 
stainless honor than Agis, but he is a grand and colossal 
figure. He bided his time ; and then, when the Ephors were 
planning to use force against him, he struck first. 



§310] THE ACHAEAN LEAGUE 285 

Aratus had led the Achaean League into war ^ with Sparta 
in order to unite all the Peloponnesus ; but the military genius 
of Cleomenes made even enfeebled Sparta a match for the 
great league. He won two great victories. Then, the league 
being helpless for the moment, he used his popularity to secure 
reform in Sparta. The oligarchs were plotting against him, 
but he was enthusiastically supported by the disfranchised 
multitudes. Leaving his Spartan troops at a distance, he 
hurried to the city by forced marches with some chosen 
followers. There he seized and slew the Ephors, and pro- 
claimed a new constitution, which contained the reforms of 
Agis. 

309. Sparta Victorious over the League. — Cleomenes designed 
to make this new Sparta the head of the Peloponnesus. He 
and Aratus each desired a free, united Greece, but under 
different leadership. Moreover, Sparta now stood forth the 
advocate of a kind of socialism, and so was particularly hate- 
ful to the aristocratic government of the league. 

The struggle between the two powers was renewed with 
fresh bitterness. Cleomenes won more victories, and then, 
with the league at his feet, he offered generous terms. He 
demanded that Sparta be admitted to the union as virtual 
leader. This would have created the greatest power ever seen 
in Greece, and, for the time, it would have made a free Hellas 
sure. The Achaeans were generally in favor of accepting the 
proposal; but Aratus — jealous of Cleomenes and fearful of 
social reform — broke off the negotiations by underhanded 
methods. 

310. Aratus calls in Macedon. — Then Aratus bought the aid 
of Macedon against Sparta, hy betraying Corinth, a free member 
of the league and the city connected with his own most 
glorious exploit. As a result, the federation became a protector- 
ate of Macedonia, holding no relations with foreign states 
except through that power. The war now became a struggle 

1 In a battle in this war Aratus held hack the Achaean phalanx, while 
Lydiadas, heading a gallant charge, was overpowered hy numbers. 



286 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§311 

for Greek freedom, waged by Sparta under her hero king 
against the overwhelming power of Macedon assisted by the 
confederacy as a vassal state. Aratus had undone his own 
great work. 

The date (222 b.c.) coincides with the general decline of the 
Hellenic world (§ 291). For a while, Sparta showed surprising 
vigor, and Cleomenes was marvelously successful. The league 
indeed dwindled to a handful of petty cities. But in the end 
Macedonia prevailed. Cleomenes fled to Egypt, to die in 
exile ; and Sparta opened her gates for the first time to a con- 
quering army. The league was restored to its old extent, but 
its glory was gone. It still served a useful purpose in keeping 
peace and order over a large part of Peloponnesus, but it was 
no longer the champion of a free Hellas. 

311. Final Decline. — Soon after, war followed between 
Achaea and Aetolia. This contest became a struggle between 
Macedonia and her vassals on the one side, and Aetolia aided 
by Rome on the other ; for as Achaea had called in Macedonia 
against Sparta, so now Aetolia called in Rome against Actaea 
and Macedonia, — and Greek history closed. 

Some gleams of glory shine out at the last in the career of 
Philopoemen of Megalopolis, the greatest general the Achaean 
League ever produced, and one of the noblest characters in 
history ; but the doom of Achaea was already sealed. " Philo- 
poemen," says Freeman, " was one of the heroes who struggle 
against fate, and who are allowed to do no more than to stave 
off a destruction which it is beyond their power to avert," 
These words are a fitting epitaph for the great league itself. 

HELLENISTIC SOCIETY 

312. General Culture. — From 280 to 150 b.c. was the period 
of chief splendor for the new, widespread Hellenism. It was 
a great and fruitful age. Society was refined ; the position of 
woman improved ; private fortunes abounded, and private 
houses possessed works of art which, in earlier times, would 
have been found only in palaces or temples. For the reverse 



5 314J LITERATURE 287 

side, there was corruption in high places, and hungry and 
threatening mobs at the base of society. 

Among the countless cities, all homes of culture, five great 
intellectual centers appeared — Athens, Alexandria, Rhodes, 
Pergamos, Antioch. The glory of Alexandria extended over 
the whole period, which is sometimes known as the Alexan- 
drian age; the others held a special preeminence, one at one 
time, one at another. Athens, however, always excelled in 
philosophy, and Rhodes in oratory.^ 

313. Literature. — The many-sided age produced new forms 
in art and literature : especially, (1) the prose romance, a story 
of love and adventure, the forerunner of the modern novel; 
(2) the pastoral poetry of TJieocritus, which was to influence 
Virgil and Tennyson; and (3) personal memoirs. The old 
Attic comedy, too, became the " New Comedy " of Menander 
and his followers, devoted to satirizing gently the life and 
manners of the time. 

In general, no doubt, the tendency in literature was toward 
critical scholarship rather than toward great and fresh crea- 
tion. Floods of books appeared, more notable for style than 
matter. Treatises on literary criticism abounded ; the science 
of grammar was developed ; and poets prided themselves upon 
writing all kinds of verse equally well. Intellectually, in its 
faults, as in its virtues, the time strikingly resembles our own. 

314. Painting and Sculpture. — Painting gained prominence. 
Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and Apelles are the most famous Greek 
names connected with this art, which was now carried to great 
perfection. According to popular stories, Zeuxis painted a 
cluster of grapes so that birds pecked at them, while Apelles 
painted a horse so that real horses neighed at the sight. 

Despite the attention given to painting, Greek sculpture 
produced some of its greatest work in this period. Multitudes 
of splendid statues were created — so abundantly, indeed, that 
even the names of the artists are not preserved. Among the 
famous pieces that survive, besides the Dying Gaul and the 

1 Caesar and Cicero studied oratory at Rhodes. 



288 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§315 

Apollo Belvidere (§ 290), are the Venus of Milo (Melos) and 
the Laocoon group. 



1 




Venus of Melos. — A statue now in the Louvre. 

315. Greek philosophy after Socrates had three distinct 
periods, corresponding to the three chief divisions of remain- 
ing Greek history. 



§316] LITERATURE 289 

{For the period of Spartan and Thehan leadership.) The 
most famous disciple of Socrates is known to the world by his 
nickname Plato, the " broad-browed." His name, and that of 
his pupil and rival, Aristotle, of the next period, are among 
the greatest in the history of ancient thought, — among the 
very greatest, indeed, in all time. Plato taught that things 
are merely the shadows of ideas, and that ideas alone are real. 
But this statement gives a very imperfect picture of his beau- 
tiful and mystical philosophy — which is altogether too com- 
plex to treat here. 

(For the Macedonian period.) Aristotle, on the other hand, 
cared more about things. Besides his philosophical treatises, 
he wrote upon rhetoric, logic, poetry, politics, physics and 
chemistry, and natural history ; and he built up all the knowl- 
edge gathered by the ancient world into one complete system. 
For the intellectual world of his day he worked a task not 
unlike that of his pupil Alexander in the political world. 
More than any other of the ancients, too, he was many-sided 
and modern in his way of thinking (cf. also §§ 285, 320). 

(For the period after Alexander.) During the Wars of the 
Succession, two new philosophical systems were born, — 
Epicureanism and Stoicism. Each called itself highly " prac- 
tical." Neither asked, as older philosophies had done, " what 
is true ? " Stoicism asked (in a sense following Socrates), — 
"What is right?" and Epicureanism asked merely, "What 
is expedient?" One sought virtue; the other, happiness. 
Neither sought knowledge. These two "schools" need a 
somewhat fuller treatment (§§ 316-318). 

316. Epicurus was an Athenian citizen. He taught that 
every man must pursue happiness as an end, but that the highest 
pleasure was to be obtained by a wise choice of the refined 
pleasures of the mind and of friendship, — not by gratifying 
the lower appetites. He advised temperance and virtue as 
means to happiness ; and he himself lived a frugal life, saying 
that with a crust of bread and a cup of cold water he could 
rival Zeus in happiness. Under cover of his theories, however, 



290 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§316 

some of his followers taught and practiced a grossness which 
Epicurus himself would have earnestly condemned. 





^M 


^Hjj^^^^^H 


^H 


^^^^^H> ^BP||yi%^<«««^^^^jB|i^ 1 


HH 




^U^^fl 


■fe-^ 


i '^'"^4 




'l^fl 


HpH-k&r^ 


^ vHHP-l^^^l 




|^^^PiW|H 


^^^^^^^^Wtt^^^^MWMH^MHH^^HMMM^ 


j_l^^ 







The Laocoon Group. 
A representation in marble of an incident in the story of the fall of Troy. 

The Epicureans denied the supernatural altogether, and held 
death to be the end of all things. Epicureanism produced some 
lorable characters, but no exalted ones. 



§319) PHILOSOPHY 291 

317. Zeno the Stoic ^ also taught at Athens. His followers 
made virtue, not happiness, the end of life. If happiness were 
to come at all, it would come, they said, as a result, not as an 
end. They placed emphasis upon the dignity of human nature : 
the wise man should be superior to the accidents of fortune. 

The Stoics believed in the gods as manifestations of one 
Divine Providence that ordered all things well. The noblest 
characters of the Greek and Koman world from this time be- 
longed to this sect. Stoicism was inclined, however, to ignore 
the gentler and kindlier side of human life ; and with bitter 
natures it merged into the philosophy of the Cynics, of whom 
Diogenes, with his tub and lantern, is the great example.^ 

318. New Importance of Philci^ophy. — Both Stoics and Epi- 
cureans held to a wide brothw^od of man. This teaching, 
no doubt, was one result of the nnion of the world in the new 
Graeco-Oriental culture. Such a doctrine would have been 
unthinkable before the battle of Arbela. Moreover, for the 
educated classes, philosophy now took the. place of religion as a 
guide to life. The philosophers were the clergy of the next few 
centuries much more truly than the priests of the temples were. 

319. Libraries and " Museums " ("Universities"). — The clos- 
ing age of Hellenistic history saw the forerunner of the modern 
university. The beginning was made at Athens. Plato (§ 315), 
by his will, left his gardens and other property to his followers, 
organized in a club. Athenian law did not recognize the right 
of any group of people to hold property, unless it were a re- 
ligious body. Therefore this club claimed to be organized foi 
the worship of the Muses, who were the patrons of literature 
and learning ; and the name Museum was given to the institu- 
tion. This was the first endowed academy, and the first union of 
teachers and learners into a corporation} 



1 Zeno taught in the painted porch {stoa) on the north side of the market- 
place : hence the name of his philosophy. See also the description of the map 
of Athens on page 202. 2 Special report: the stories of Diogenes. 

8 A corporation is a body of men recognized by the law as a " person " so 
far as property rights go. 



292 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§320 

The idea has never since died out of the world. The model 
and name were used a little later by the Ptolemies at Alexan- 
dria in their Museum. This was a richly endowed institution, 
with large numbers of students. It had a great library of over 
half a million .volumes (manuscripts), with scribes to make 
careful copies of them and to make their meaning more clear, 
when necessary, by explanatory notes. It had also observa- 
tories and botanical and zoological gardens, with collections of 
rare plants and animals from distant parts of the world. The 
librarians, and the other scholars who were gathered about the 
institution, devoted their lives to a search for knowledge and 
to teaching; and so they corresponded to the faculty of a 
modern university. 

"The external appearance [of the Museum] was that of a group of 
buildings which served a common purpose — temple of the Muses, library, 
porticoes, dwellings, and a hall for meals, which were taken together. 
The inmates were a community of scholars and poets, on whom the king 
bestowed the honor and privilege of being allowed to work at his expense 
with all imaginable assistance ready to hand. . . . The managing board 
was composed of priests, but the most influential post was that of libra- 
rian." — Holm, History of Greece, IV, 307. 

One enterprise, of incalculable benefit to the later world, shows the 
zeal of the Ptolemies in collecting and translating texts. Alexandria had 
many Jews in its population, but they were coming to use the Greek 
language. Philadelphus, for their benefit, had the Hebrew Scriptures 
translated into Greek. This is the famous Septuagint translation, so 
called from the tradition that it was the work of seventy scholars. 

320. Science made greater strides than ever before in an 
equal length of time. Medicine, surgery, botany, and mechan- 
ics became real sciences for the first time. Archimedes of 
Syracuse discovered the principle of the lever, and of specific 
gravity, and constructed burning mirrors and new hurling 
engines which made effective siege artillery.^ Euclid, a Greek 
at Alexandria, building upon the old Egyptian knowledge, pra 
duced the geometry which is still taught in our schools with 

1 See Davis' Readings, Vol. II, No. 27. 



§320] 



SCIENCE 



293 



little addition. Eratosthenes (born 276 b.c), the librarian at 
Alexandria, wrote a systematic work on geography, invented 
delicate astronomical instruments, and devised the present 
way of measuring the circumference of the earth — with 
results nearly correct. A little later, Aristarchus taught that 
the earth moved round the sun ; and Hipparchus calculated 
eclipses, catalogued the stars, wrote books on astronomy, and 




founded the science of trigonometry. Aristotle had already 
given all the proofs of the sphericity of the earth that are 
common in our text-books now (except that of actual circum- 
navigation) and had asserted that men could probably reach Asia 
by sailing west from Europe. The scientific spirit gave rise, 
too, to actual voyages of exploration into many regions ; and 
daring discoverers brought back from northern regions what 
seemed wild tales of icebergs gleaming in the cold aurora of 
the polar skies. 

The lighthouse built by the first Ptolemy on the island of 
Pharos, in the harbor of Alexandria, shows that the new 
civilization had begun to make practical use of science to 



294 THE GRAECO-ORIENTAL WORLD [§321 

advance human welfare. The tower rose 325 feet into the 
air, and from the summit a group of polished reflecting mirrors 
threw its light at night far out to sea. It seemed to the Jew- 
ish citizens of Alexandria to make real once more the old 
Hebrew story of the Pillar of Cloud by day and of Fire by 
night, — to guide wanderers on the wastes of waves. "All 
night," said a Greek poet, " will the sailor, driving before the 
storm, see the fire gleam from its top." 

321. The Greek contributions to our civilization cannot be 
named and counted, as we did those from the preceding 
Oriental peoples. Egypt and Babylon gave us some very im- 
portant outer features, — garments, if we choose so to speak, 
for the body of our civilization. But the Greeks gave us its soul. 
This is the truth in the noble sentences quoted at the head 
of Greek history in this volume (page 95) : " We are all 
Greeks," and " There is nothing that moves in the world to- 
day that is not Greek in origin." 

Because the Greek contributions are of the spirit, rather 
than of the body, they are harder to describe in a brief sum- 
mary. One supreme thing, however, must be mentioned. The 
Greeks gave us the ideal of freedom, regulated by self-control, — 
freedom in thought, in religion, and in politics. 



References for Further ^tvdy .-— Specially suggested: Davis' 
Headings^ Vol. I, Nos. 119-126 (19 pages, mostly from Polybius, Arrian, 
and Plutarch, the three Greek historians of that age). 

Additional: Plutarch's Lives ("Aratus," " Agis," " Cleomenes," 
" Philopoemen ") ; Mahaffy's Alexander'' s Empire. 

Exercise. — Review the various confederacies, — Peloponnesian, Da- 
lian, Olynthian, Achaean, noting likenesses and contrasts. Review the 
period from Chaeronea to the death of Alexander by "catch words." 



§ 321] REVIEW EXERCISES 295 

REVIEW EXERCISES ON PARTS U AND III 

A. Fact Drills on Greek History 

1. The class should form a Table of Dates gradually as the critical 
points are reached, and should then drill upon it until it says itself as the 
alphabet does. The following dates are enough for this drill in Greek 
history. The table should be filled out as is done for the first two dates. 



776 B.C. 


First recorded Oijrmpiad 


338 


490 " 


Marathon 


222 


405 " 




146 


371 " 







2. Name in order fifteen battles, between 776 and 146 b.c, stating for 
each the parties, leaders, result, and importance. (Such tables also 
should be made by degrees as the events are reached.) 

3. Explain concisely the following terms or names: Olympiads, 
Ephors, Mycenaean Culture, Olympian Religion, Araphictyonies, Sappho. 
{Let the class extend the list several fold.) 

B. Topical Reviews 

This is a good point at which to review certain " culture topics," — 
I.e., agriculture, industrial arts, life of rich and poor, philosophy, litera- 
ture, art, religion, science, — tracing each separately from the dawn of 
history. 

Make a table showing the chief divisions of Greek history, with sub- 
divisions. 




Julius Caesar. — The British Museum bust. 



PART 11 

Rome and the West 



PAET IV 



EOME 



The center of our studies, the goal of our thoughts, the point to which 
all paths lead and the point from which all paths start again, is to be 
found in Home and her abiding power. — Freeman. 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE PLACE OF ROME IN HISTORY 

322. Preceding History. — Our civilization began seven thou- 
sand years ago in the fertile valleys of Egypt and western 
Asia. Slowly war and trade spread it around the eastern 
coasts of the Mediterranean. But the contributions of this 
Oriental civilization to the future were mainly material. About 
600 B.C. the Greeks, in their Aegean home and in their many 
settlements scattered along all the Mediterranean coasts, be- 
came the leaders in civilization. They made marvelous 
advance in art, literature, philosophy, and in some sciences. 
Their chief contributions were intellectual. After about three 
hundred years, under Alexander the Great, they suddenly con- 
quered the East and formed a Graeco-Oriental world. 

323. The historical " center of gravity " now shifted once more to 
the West. The Italian peninsula, west of Greece, had long had 
intercourse with Hellas and the Orient. Greek cities dotted its 
southern shores; and its continuation — the island of Sicily — 
had been for centuries a battleground between Greek and Car- 
thaginian. Italian cities, too, traded widely in the eastern 
Mediterranean. Italy was not a new land to history ; but^ 
until 200 B.C., it was merely an outlying fragment of the world 

297 



298 ROME [5 324 

of history. Then it suddenly became the center of historical iu' 
terest. 

During the three centuries between the Persian War and 
the Achaean League, one of the Italian cities had been growing 
into a power which was soon to become the master of the 
world, and to make new advances in civilization. This power 
was Rome. 

324. Rome stands for government and law, as distinctly as 
Greece stands for art and intellectual culture. The master- 
work of Rome was to make empire and to rule it. The 
Romans themselves recognized this. Their poet Virgil 
wrote : — 

" Others, I grant, indeed, shall with more delicacy mold the breathing 
brass ; from marble draw the features to the life ; plead causes better ; 
describe with a rod the courses of the heavens, and explain the rising 
stars. To rule the nations loith imperial sway be thy care, Boman. 
These shall be thy arts : to impose terms of peace, to spare the humbled, 
and to crush the proud." 

Rome began as a village of rude shepherds and peasants by 
the bank of the Tiber. Her history is the story of the growth 
of a village into a city-state, the growth of that city-state into 
a united Italy, and the further growth of that Italy into a 
world-state. Rome did first for the villages of its surrounding 
hills what Athens did for the villages of Attica. It went on 
to do for all Italy what Athens had tried in vain to do for all 
Greece. Then it did lastingly for all the Mediterranean world 
what Alexander did — for a moment — for the eastern half. 
Shortly before the birth of Christ it had organized the fringes 
of the three continents bordering the Mediterranean into one 
Graeco-Roman society. 

The Greeks, a^ide from their own contributions to civiliza- 
tion, had collected the arts and sciences of all the nations of 
antiquity. 'Rorae presei'ved this common treasure of mankind, 
and herself added laws and institutions which have influenced 
all later time. The Roman Empire, says the historian Free- 
man, is the central " lake in which all the streams of ancient 



4 



§3251 PLACE IN HISTORY 299 

history lose themselves^ and which all the streams of modern his- 
tory flow out ofP 

325. The Roman and the Greek. — It was not Rome's genius 
in war, great as that was, which enabled her to make the world 
Roman. It was her political wisdom and her organizing power. 
The Romans were stern and harsh, but they were also just, 
obedient, reverent of law. They were a disciplined people, 
and they loved order. The work of the Greeks and that of 
the Romans are happily related. Each is strong where the other 
is weak. The Greeks gave us philosophy and art ; the Ro- 
mans, political institutions and systems of law. 

*' The Greeks had more genius; the Romans more stability. . . . They 
[the Romans] had less delicacy of perception, . . . but they had more 
sobriety of character and more endurance. . . . Versatility belonged to 
the Greek, virility to the Roman." — Fisher, Outlines of Universal 
History, 125. 

" If it be true, as is sometimes said, that there is no literature which 
rivals the Greek except the English, it is perhaps even more true that the 
Anglo-Saxon is the only race which can be placed beside the Roman in 
creative power in law and politics." — George Burton Adams. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLES 

326. Meaning of the Name " Italy." — Modern Italy, bounded 
by the Alps and the sea, is made up of two distinct halves, — 
the level valley of the Po extending from east to west, and the 
slender mountainous peninsula reaching from it south into the 
Mediterranean. But until about 27 b.c, the first of these two, 
the Po valley, was always considered part of Gaul. It was 
called Cisalpine Gaul, or Gaul this side the Alps. During all 
early Roman history the name Italy belonged not to this valley, 
but 07ily to the true peninsula with the Apennine range for its 
backbone. This district is about as large as Alabama. 

Like Greece, Italy was specially fitted by nature for the 
work it was to do. In particular, there were three ways in 
which its geography affected its history. Each of these calls 
for a paragraph (§§ 327-329). 

327. Unity. — Italy was more fit than Greece for internal 
union, which is the only safe basis for external empire. The 
geographical divisions are larger, and less distinct, than the divi- 
sions in Greece, and so the inhabitants were more easily united 
under one government. The fertile plains were better suited 
to agriculture and grazing than were the lands of Greece, 
while the coast lacked the many harbors and the island-studded 
sea that invited the earliest Hellenes to commerce. Civiliza- 
tion came somewhat later ; but the foundations of empire were 
more securely laid. 

328. Direction of the First Expansion. — Geography deter- 
mined also the direction of Italy's first conquests. The Apen- 
nines are nearer the eastern coast than the western, and so, on 
the eastern side, the short rocky spurs and swift torrents lose 

300 



§ 331] GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES 301 

themselves quickly in the Adriatic. The western slope is 
nearly twice as broad ; here are rivers and fertile plains, and, 
as a result, most of the few harbors and the important states. 
Thus Italy and Greece stood back to back (§ 85 d). Greece 
faced the old Oriental civilizations. Italy faced west toward 
Spain, and, through Sicily, toward Africa. When she was 
ready for outside work, she gave herself to conquering and 
civilizing these western lands, inhabited by fresh, vigorous 
peoples. Only after this had been accomplished did she 
come into hostile contact with the Grae co-Oriental world — ex- 
cept for the small Greek states in southern Italy. 

329. The Central Mediterranean Land. — European culture be- 
gan in the peninsula which was at once " the most European 
of European lands " and also the European land nearest to the 
older civilizations of the East (§§ 84, 85). Just as naturally, 
the state which was to unite and rule all the coasts of the Mediter- 
ranean had its home in the central peninsula which divides that 
inland sea, When her struggle for empire began, her central 
position enabled Italy to cut off the Carthaginian power in 
Africa and Spain from its allies in the East and to conquer her 
enemies one by one. 

Exercise — Map study : note that Liguria, Oallia Cisalpina, and 
Venetia are outside the true Italy (§ 326) ; fix the position of Etruria^ 
Latium, Campania, Samnium, and the Sahines; observe that the Arnus 
(Arno), in Etruria, the Tiber, between Etruria and Latium, and the 
Liris, between Latium and Campania, are the most important rivers. 
Their basins were early homes of culture in Italy. 

330. A Mingling of Races. — For some centuries in the pe- 
riod we are to study, Italy was the mistress of the world. Be- 
fore that time, as since, she had been overrun by invaders. In 
prehistoric times, the fame of her fertility and beauty had 
tempted swarm after swarm of barbarians across the Alps and 
the Adriatic ; and already at the opening of history the land 
held a curious mixture of races. 

331. Chief Divisions. — The center of the peninsula was thfi 
nome of the Italians, who were finally to give their languages 



302 



ROME 



(§331 



and law to the whole land. They fell into two branches. 
The western Italians were lowlanders, and were called Latins. 
Their home was in Latium. The eastern and larger section 
of Italians were highlanders, and were again subdivided into 
Sabines, Samnites, Volscians, and so on. 

The more important of the other races were the Greeks in 
the south and the Oauls and Etruscayis in the north. The 




Remains of an Etruscan Wall and Arch at Sutrl 



Greeks (of Magna Graecia) have been referred to in earlier 
pages. The Gauls held the Po valley. They were merely a 
portion of the Gauls from beyond the Alps, and remained 
rude barbarians until a late period. 

The Etruscans were a mysterious people — "the standing 
riddle of history." At an early time they had held the Po and 
all the western coast from the Alps to the Greek cities of the 
south. But before exact history begins, the Latins and the 
Samnites of Campania had thrown off their yoke and driven 
them from all lands south of the Tiber, while the Gauls had 



ITALY 

EEFERENCE MAP 

SCALE OF MILES ** 

5 iS 3o iw) 




§331] PEOPLBB OF ITALY 303 

expelled them from the Po valley. Thus they had become 
restricted to the central district, Etruria, just across the Tiber 
from the Latins. 

The Etruscans remained, however, the most civilized people 
in Italy until the Greek settlements began. They were mighty 
and skillful builders, as their many interesting ruins show. 
They had a system of writing, and have left multitudes of 




Etruscan Tombs at Orvieto. 

inscriptions, in a language to which scholars can find no key. 
They became celebrated early for their w^ork in bronze and 
iron, and they were the first people in Italy to engage in com- 
merce. But before they sent out trading ships themselves, 
they welcomed those of the Phoenicians, and perhaps those of 
the Cretans. Their early tombs contain many articles of Egyp- 
tian and Phoenician and early Greek workmanship, brought 
them by these early traders, who doubtless taught them many 
arts. The Etruscans, in turn, were Rome's first teacJiers, before 
that taslf fell to the Greeks of south Italy. Etruscan builders 



304 



ROME 



[§331 



reared the walls of early Kome, drained her marshes, and 
fringed the Tiber-side with great quays. The Koman's dress 
(the toga), his house, his favorite amusements (the cruel sports 
of the amphitheater), and much of his religion (especially the 



"Italians" 
(Umbrians) 




THE PEOPLES 
OF ITALY 



divination and soothsaying) were Etruscan in origin; while 
from the same source he learned his unrivaled power to build 
for all time.^ 



1 There are many survivals of the ancient Etruscan paganism and divina- 
tion to-day among the Tuscan peasantry. The ancient method of discovering 
the will of the gods by examining the entrails of animals (offered in sacrifice) 
was very similar — even in little details — to the custom of the old Babylo- 
nians. It seems almost certain that this and other Etruscan " charms " must 
have come, in some way, from Babylonia; cf. § 49. *, 



§333] 



GEOGRAPHICAL ADVANTAGES 



305 



332. " Fragments of Forgotten Peoples." — Besides these four great 
races — Italians, Greeks, Etruscans, and Gauls — whom Rome was finally 
to fuse into one strong and noble nation, there were also fragments of 
earlier peoples in ancient Italy. In the southern mountains were the 
lapygians ; in the marshes of the northeast, the Yeneti ; and, in the 
extreme northwest, between the Alps and the sea, the wild Ligurians. 
These last were rude hilUmen, who had fought savagely for their crags 
and caves with Etruscans and Gauls, and were long to harass the Roman 
legions with guerilla warfare. Later, they furnished Rome an admirable 
light infantry. 

333. Geographical Advantages of Rome. — At first Rome was 
simply one of many Italian towns. Her rise to greatness 
rested, in part, at least, upon four geographical conditions. 

a. Rome is the central city of the peninsula, and so had advan- 
tages for consolidating Italy like those enjoyed by Italy after- 
ward for unifying the Mediterranean coasts. It was not by 
accident that Mediterranean do- 
minion fell to the central city of 
the central peninsula. 

b. The Tiber ivas the one navi- 
gable river of Italy. In old times 
ships sailed up the river to Rome, 
while barges brought down to her 
wharves the wheat and wine of the 
uplands. The site had the ad- 
vantages of a port, but was far 
enough from the coast to be safe 
from sudden raids by pirates. 
There is no doubt that Rome's greatness in Latium was largely 
due to her commercial site.^ 

c. Early Rome was a "mai'Jc state'' of the Latins; that is, it 
bordered upon hostile peoples. Just across the Tiber lay the 
Etruscans, and in the eastern mountains dwelt the Sabines, — 
rude highlanders, fond of raiding their richer neighbors of the 
plains. The Romans were the champions of the Latins against 




ROME ^ 

AND VICINITY 



1 Mommsen, I, 59-62, has a striking account of the Tiber traffic. 



306 ROME [§ 333 

both these foes. Thus they came to excel the other Latins in 
war. Their position was favorable, also, to some mingling of 
tribes ; and Roman traditions assert that such a mingling did 
take place (§ 335). 

d. Rome was " the city of the seven hills.^' Italian towns, like 
the Greek (§ 103), had their origin each in some acropolis, or 
hill fortress ; and even in Latium there were many settlements, 
like Alba Longa or Praeneste, that frowned from more formid- 
able heights than those held by Rome. But nowhere else was 
there in the midst of a fertile plain a group of hills. The impor- 
tance of this will be shown soon (§ 338). 



For Further Reading. — Davis' Headings, Ydi. II, No. 1, gives a de- 
scription of Italy and its peoples by an old Roman writer. An excellent 
brief modern account is to be found in Howe and Leigh, 1-19. 



CHAPTER XXI 

LEGENDARY HISTORY 

The two pages of this chapter are more suitable for reading 
in class than for ordinary recitation. 

334. Old Writers and Sources. — The Romans had no Homer ^ 
for their early civilization; and they did not begin to write 
the history of their city until about 200 e.g., — more than two 
centuries after Herodotus and Thucydides wrote the history 
of Greece. Even then the first histories were meager skele- 
tons. To make even such a story for the earlier centuries of 
Roman life, the first Roman historians found only two kinds 
of material — scant official records and unreliable family chron- 
icles. 

The records comprised only lists of magistrates, with brief notices of 
striking events and of peculiar phenomena, like an eclipse. Even these 
barren records had been destroyed up to the year 390 b.c. (v^^hen the 
Gauls sacked the city), and had been restored, imperfectly, from memory. 

The great clans fed their pride by family histories, and especially by 
historical funeral orations (§ 397) ; but these were all based upon oral 
tradition, which was readily distorted by inventions and wild exaggera- 
tions, to suit family glory. 

From such sources, early in the second century b.c, Fahius 
Fictor (§ 624) wrote the first connected history of Rome. He 
and his successors (mostly Greek slaves or adventurers) trimmed 
and patched their narratives ingeniously to get rid of gross 

1 Some modern scholars, however, believe that there must have been a 
copious ballad literature among the people, from which early historians could 
draw. Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome was an attempt to reproduce such 
ballads as Macaulay thought must once have existed. A criticism of this 
idea may be found in Ihne's Early Rome, 18, 19. 

307 



308 ROME [§ 835 

inconsistencies, filled the many gaps by borrowing freely from 
incidents in Greek history, and so produced an attractive story. 
These early works are now lost ; but, two hundred years later, 
they furnished material for Livy and Dionysius, whose accounts 
of the legendary age were accepted as real history ^ until after 

1800 A.D. 

335. Legends of Regal Rome. — According to the legendary story, 
Rome was ruled from 753 to 610 b.c. by seven successive kings. The 
founder, Bomulus^ was the son of Mars (God of War) and of a Latin 
princess. As a babe he had been exposed to die, but was preserved and 
suckled by a wolf. He grew up among rude shepherds ; with their aid 
he built a city on the Palatine Mount above the old wolf's den ; here he 
gathered about him outlaws from all quarters, and these men seized the 
daughters of a Sabine tribe for wives. This led to war, and finally to 
the union of the Romans and the Sabines, who then settled upon one of 
the neighboring hills. Romulus organized the people into tribes, curias, 
and clans ; appointed a Senate ; conquered widely ; and was finally 
taken up to heaven by the gods in a thunderstorm, or, as some thought, 
was killed by jealous aristocrats. Numa, the next king, elected after a 
year's interregnum, established religious rites, and gave laws and arts of 
peace, which were taught him by the nymph Egeria in a sacred grove by 
night. Tullus Hostilius, a warlike conqueror, is a shadowy Romulus, 
and Ancus Marcius is a faint copy of Numa. The fifth king was Tarquin 
the First, an Etruscan adventurer, who was succeeded by Servius Tullius, 
son of a slave girl. Servius reorganized the government, and was fol- 
lowed by a second Tarquin, Tarquin the Frond, whose oppression led to 
his expulsion and to the establishment of a Republic. The last three 
sovereigns were "tyrants" in the Greek sense. They favored the com- 
mon people (the plebs) against the aristocratic patricians, extended the 
sway of Rome, and constructed great and useful works. 

336. Modern Scholars and these Legends. — To scholars of 
the time of the American Revolution, Eomulus and Tarquin 
were as real as Queen Elizabeth or Christopher Columbus. 
Early in the nineteenth century, however, scholars began to 
inquire into inconsistencies in the Eoman narrative. Such 
investigation soon forced the world to give up the old history. 

1 Livy himself spoke modestly of the unreliability of much of his material 
for the early period ; but later writers repeated his story without his cautions. 



§336] EARLY LEGENDS 309 

No one now regards the stories of the kings as history. In- 
deed, no one pretends to know more than a general outline of 
Roman history before 390 B.C. ; and for a century after that 
date the details are very uncertain. Since 1900 a.d., however, 
excavations have taught us much. The opinions of modern 
scholars regarding this early period will be stated briefly in 
the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XXII 

CONCLUSIONS ABOUT ROME UNDER THE KINGS 

THE GROWTH OF THE CITY 

337. Early Latium contained thirty Latin tribes, each 
settled around some hill-fort. At first, E-ome was by no means 
the most important of these centers. In the early days the 
leading settlement was Alba Longa (the Long White City), 
which was the head of a rude Latin union, — like a Greek am- 
phictyony (§ 119), but somewhat more political in character. 

338. The Union of the Seven Hills at Rome. — The oldest part 
of Rome seems to have been a settlement on the crest of the 
Palatine, a square hill and the central one of the group of low 
hills on the south side of the Tiber. Some village had held 
a place there from the Stone Age of the Latins, — at least 1200 
years before Christ, — and it is still possible to trace solidly 
built walls of this " square town " belonging to a prehistoric 
date.^ This citadel served as a military outpost of the Latins, 
to hold the Tiber frontier against the Etruscans on the north 
bank. 

Early settlements were made also on at least two other of 
the seven hills, — the Quirinal and the Caelian. Roman tra- 
dition says that one of these towns was founded by an invad- 
ing tribe of Sabines, and the other by a conquering Etruscan 
tribe. No doubt, there was a long period of war between the 
three hill-forts, with occasional truces, during which the towns- 
men met for trade on the common ground of the marshes between 
the hills. Finally, the three settlements were united into one 
state, with the tribes on an equal footing, one with another. 

1 The historic Romans believed that their city was founded in 753 B.C., and 
they dated all events from that year. Excavations show that they might 
have claimed much greater antiquity. 

310 



338] 



GROWTH OF THE CITY 



311 



Then the low ground between these hills became the place 
for political assemblies (Comitium), and for the common market 
place (Forum) ; and the steep Capitoline, a little to one side, 




ROME 

uader the Kings 



1. Citadel (Arx). 4. Citadel at Janiculum. 7. Senate House (Curia). 

2. Temple of Jupiter (Capitolinus). 5. " Wall of Romulus." 8. Comitium. 

3. "Quays of the Tar quins." 6. Temple of Vesta. 

became the common citadel. The later kings (the " tyrants " 
perhaps) drained the marshes and inclosed all the seven hills 
within one wall, taking in also much open space for further city- 
growth. Until a few years ago, the remains of a great drain 
{Cloaca Maxima) and of a massive wall were thought to be* 



312 



s> 



ROME UNDER THE KINGS 



[§338 



long to these early works ; but they are now supposed to be of 
^ater date, replacing the ruder structures of the kings. The 




So-called Wall of Servius. This wall was thirteen feet thick and fift> 
feet high. It consisted of a huge rampart of earth, faced on each side by a 
wall of immense stones fitted together without mortar. A part of this 
colossal structure has recently been uncovered on the Aventine. 

present remains, however, belong to a very early period, and 
are pictured in these pages. 



The gain from this union was not merely in physical power. That was 
the least of it. Early societies are fettered rigidly by custom, so that the 
beginnings of change are inconceivably slow. In Rome, the union of 



3391 



GROWTH OF THE CITY 



"iis 



distinct societies broke this bondage at a period far earlier than common. 
Necessity compelled the three tribes to adopt broader views of their re- 
lations toward one another. They became accustomed to variety of cus- 
toms, and they found how to live together peaceably even when their 
ways differed. Compromise took the place of inflexible custom. Th2is 
began the process of association that was later to unite Italy., and Rome 
was started upon the development of her marvelous system of law. 




Cloaca Maxima. As it appeared before a recent restoration. 



339. Growth beyond the Walls. — The territory of the city 
must still have been for a while only a narrow strip along the 
river, limited on every side by the stream or by the lands of 
other towns. But before the year 500 b.c, war with the 
neighboring Sabines, Etruscans, and Latins had produced 
great expansion. Eome had come to hold a third of Latium and 
to control the whole south hank of the Tiber from the sea to the 
highlands (about eighteen miles either way from the city). 
At the Tiber mouth, Ostia, the first Eoman colony, had been 



314 ROME UNDER THE KINGS [§340 

founded for a port ; and, on the north side of the river, Rome 
had seized Mount Janiculum and fortified it against the Etrus- 
cans. Several of the conquered Latin towns had been razed 
and their inhabitants brought to Rome. Even Alba Longa 
had been destroyed, and Rome had succeeded to the headship 
of the Latin confederacy. 

EARLY ROMAN SOCIETY 

340. Homes. — The first Romans, when not fighting, were 
fanning or shepherding their flocks. Their life was plain and 
simple. Their houses were like those of the primitive people all 
about the Mediterranean (§ 95), — small huts, often only one 
room, with no chimney or window. The open door and an 
opening in the peaked roof let out the smoke from the hearth 
fire, and let in light. Daylight entered through the open door, 
and a slight cavity directly below the roof-opening received the 
rain. 

341. Religion centered about the home and the daily tasks. 
Eor each house the door had its protecting god Janus, two- 
faced, looking in and out; and each hearth fire had the goddess 
Vesta. When the city grew powerful, it had a city Janus, 
and a city Vesta. In the ancient round temple of Vesta, the 
holy fire of the city was kept always bright by the priestesses 
{VestalVirgins), who had to keep pure in thought and act, that 
they might not pollute its purity. For the fire to go out, or 
be defiled in any way, would mean disaster or ruin for the city. 

Next to the house gods came the gods of the farm : Tellus 
{Earth), the deity in the soil ; Saturn, the god of sowing ; Ceres, 
the goddess who made the grain grow ; Venus, another god- 
dess of fruitfulness ; and Terminus, a god who dwelt in each 
boundary pillar, to preserve the bounds of the farm — and, 
later, to guard the boundaries of the state. 

The early Romans had also an ancestor worship at each fam- 
ily tomb, and each Latin tribe had its ancestral or at least its 
patron deity. The war-god. Mars, father of the fabled Rom- 
ulus, was the special god of Rome. At the head of all the 



§341] 



EARLY SOCIETY 



S15 



tribal gods of Latium stood Jupiter (Father Jove) ; and when 
Rome became the central Latin power, Jupiter became the cen- 
ter of the Roman religion. 

The later Romans borrowed some of the Greek stories about 
the gods/ to establish a sort of relationship among their 
deities; but they lacked imagination and poetic feeling, and 




An Early Roman Coin (As) . The head is a representation of Janus ; the 
reverse side shows the prow of a ship. 

they could not create a rich and beautiful mythology, as the 
Greeks had done. 

The Roman gods were less like men than the Greek gods 
were. They remained vague and misty. In consequence Ro- 
man religion seems to us a " dreary round of ceremonies," with 
little of adoration, no poetry, and no love. As a matter of 
prudence, the will of the gods was sought out by a study of 
omens. Worship consisted of a strict observance of ceremo- 
nies. Divine favor could be lost by failure to use precise 
gestures in a service, or by the omission or addition of a single 
word. On the other hand, the intricacies of the worship had 
somewhat the value of a conjurer's charm. If the ceremony 
was carried through in the proper manner,^ it almost compelle'U 
the aid of the gods. 

1 For the correspondence of Greek and Roman gods, see § 111. 

2 Munro's Source Book, page 9, No. 9, a, 6. 



316 EARLY ROME [§342 

342. Pontiffs and Augurs. ^ — Under these conditions there 
grew up in Rome (as in other Italian towns) two important 
" colleges " of city priests/ — pontiffs and augurs. 

a. The pontiffs had general oversight of the state re- 
ligion; and they were also the guardians of human science. 
Their care of the exact dates of religious festivals made them 
the keepers of the calendar and of the rude records of the 
city (§ 334). They had oversight also of weights and meas- 
ures ; and they themselves described their knowledge as " the 
science of all things human and divine." 

6. The gods at Rome manifested their will not by oracles but 
by omens, or auspices. These auspices were sought especially in 
the conduct of birds, and in the color and size of the entrails 
of animals (§331, note). The interpretation of such signs 
became a kind of science, in the possession of a college of 
augurs. 

343. Political Value. — The Roman religion became a mighty 
political instrument. No public act (vote, election, or battle) 
could be begun without divine approval. If the gods were 
properly consulted concerning a proposed measure and had 
manifested their approval, then, the Romans felt, they were 
under obligation to see it carried through.^ 

The thrifty Roman mind drove hard bargains, too, with the 
gods. The soothsayers called for fresh animals until the en- 
trails gave the signs desired by the ruling magistrate, and 
then the gods were just as much bound as if they had shown 
favor at the first trial. The sky was watched until the desired 
birds did appear, and, in the later periods, tame birds were kept 
to give the required indications. 

The priests and augurs, too, were the servants of the state, 
not its masters. They did not make a distinct hereditary class, 
hut were themselves warriors and statesmen ; and, as priests, 
they acted only at the command of the civil magistrate. The 

1 A " college " Is simply a " collection " of persons. The members of each 
college held office for life, and themselves filled vacancies in their number. 

2 Munro's Source Book, 16, illustrates thispoini. 



§345] SOCIAL CLASSES 317 

augurs sought no omen, and made no announcement, except 
when directed to do so.^ 

344. Patricians and Plebeians. — The descendants of the 
original three tribes (§ 338) formed "the Roman people," in 
a strict sense. The tribesmen were patricians (men "with 
fathers "), For a long time, they were the only citizens — along 
with the clans and families whom they " adopted " from time to 
time. They alone could vote or hold office or sue in the courts. 

But, like the Greek cities, Italian cities contained many 
non-citizens. In Eome this class was especially large, partly 
because the city had brought within its walls many clans from 
conquered cities, and partly because adventurers and refugees 
thronged naturally to a prosperous commercial center. These 
non-citizens were plebeians (or the plebs). Some of them 
were rich ; but none of them had any part in the religion, or 
law, or politics of the city. They could not intermarry with 
citizens. Policy and custom required the city to protect their 
lives and property ; but they had no absolute security 
against an unscrupulous patrician. TJieir struggle to win rights 
and privileges makes the early political history of Rome. 

345. Patrician society was organized in families, clans 
(gentes), and curias. 

a. The family counted far more than in Greece. The 
Koman father had a peculiar power over his sons and grand- 
sons as long as he lived, even when they were grown men and 
perhaps in the ruling offices of the city. When his son took 
a wife, she, too, leaving her own family, came under his con- 
trol. His own daughters passed by marriage from his hand 
under that of some other house-father. Roman law recognized 
no relationship through females. The father ruled his house- 
hold, and the households of his male descendants, as priest, 
judge, and king. He could sell, or slay, his wife, unmarried 
daughter, grown-up son, or son's wife ; and all that was theirs 
was his. No appeal lay from him to any higher judge. In 

1 Munro's Source Book, 12, has a good illustration of the power of augurs« 



318 EARLY ROME [§346 

practice, however, the father was influenced somewhat by near 
relatives and by public opinion and religious feeling. A man 
was declared accursed if he sold a married son into slavery, 
though no law could punish him. It is a curious fact that, 
despite the legal slavery of women, the Roman matrons had a 
dignity and public influence unknown in Greece. 

h. The Roman gentes correspond to the Greek clans. In 
patrician Rome there were 300 of these units. 

c. The 'SOO clans were grouped in 30 curias.^ In early 
historical times, the curias were the most important division 
of the people, both for worship and for government. Each curia 
possessed its own religious festivals, its own priest, its temple 
and sacred hearth. In the political Assembly of the people 
the curia was the unit for voting. 

346. The patrician government had three parts, — king. 
Senate, and Assembly (as in Homeric Greece). The king 
stood to the state as the father to the family, and was some- 
what more important than the early Greek kings were. 

The Senate seems to have been originally a council of the 300 
chiefs of the clans. In historic Rome it long kept the number 
300, but the kings won the power to fill vacancies. The Senate 
could advise the king, and it could veto any change in old custom. 

When a king died before his successor had been appointed, there was 
an interregnum ("interval between kings"). The Senators ruled by 
turns, for five days each, as inter-reges ("kings for an interval"). The 
first inter-rex was chosen by lot. Each one then named his successor, 
and any one after the first could nominate a permanent king. No election 
could take place except upon such nomination. Each inter-rex for his 
brief rule kept the kingly power in full. 

The Assembly was a meeting of the patricians in curias. It 
met only at the call of the king. Its approval was necessary 
for offensive war and for any change in old customs,^ and for 

1 These precise figures suggest that there had been some artificial rearrange- 
ment of these natural units — such as that ascribed to Romulus. 

2 Early societies have very little law-making. This process of definitely 
changing an old custom, on rare occasions, corresponds to modern legislation. 



§348] ORGANIZATION BY CENTURIES 319 

the adoption of new clans ; and, after an interregnum, it elected 
a king on the nomination of some inter-rex. The early 
Assembly did not debate : it only listened to the king's words. 

TWO PREHISTORIC REVOLUTIONS 

347. Plebeians gain Some Rights. — The first great change 
in the Roman government was the partial admission of the 
plebeians. Legend asserts that this was the work of Servius. 
Certainly the change was connected with a reform of the 
Roman army. 

Originally, the army was made up of " the Roman people " 
— the patricians and their immediate dependents. But as 
the plebeians grew in numbers, the king needed their service 
in war. Toward the close of the period of the kings, Rome 
was a city of eighty thousand or one hundred thousand people. 
According to the legend, Servius called upon eighteen hundred 
of the wealthiest citizens to serve as cavalry (equites or knights)^ 
and then, for infantry service, divided all other landowners, p/e6e- 
ian and patrician, into five classes, according to their wealth. 

Eight thousand had property enough so that they could be 
required to provide themselves with complete armor. They 
made the front ranks of the phalanx. Behind them stood the 
second and third classes, less completely equipped, but still 
ranking as " heavy-armed." The poorer fourth and fifth 
classes served as light-armed troops. Each of the five classes 
was subdivided into centuries, or companies of 100 men each. 
In all there were 193 centuries, — a fighting force of nearly 
20,000 men. 

In early society the obligation to fight and the right to vote 
go together (cf. § 137). Questions of peace and war and the 
election of military officers were naturally referred to the war 
host. Thus, gradually the army of centuries became in peace 
an Assembly of Centuries, which took to itself all the political 
powers of the old Assembly of Curias. 

348. Aristocratic Character Maintained. — The army grad- 
ually changed its form, but the political Assembly of Centuries 



320 EARLY ROME [§349 

crystallized in the original shape. In this way, the patricians 
maintained most of their power. As the population increased, 
the poorer classes grew in numbers faster than the rich; but 
they did not gain political weight because the number of cen- 
turies was not changed. The centuries of the lower classes came 
to contain maiiy more than a hundred men each, while those of the 
knights and first class contained far less ; but each century, full 
or skeleton, still counted one vote. 

Thus the knights and the j^rs^ class (98 of the 193 centuries), 
even after they had come to be a small minority of the people, 
could outvote all the rest. They still voted first, too, just as 
when they stood in the front ranks for battle ; and so often- 
times they settled a question without any vote at all by the 
other classes. And since the knights and the first class must 
have remained largely patrician, it is clear that in disputes 
between the patricians and plebeians the aristocratic party 
could rule. 

None the less it was a great gain that the position of a man 
was fixed, not by birth and religion, but by his wealth. The 
arrangement of the centuries still prevented complete political 
equality; but the first great barrier against the rise of democracy 
was broke^i down. 

349. " Tyrants." — A second great change took place about the 
year 500. This was the disappearance of kingship.^ Probably 
many more than seven kings ruled at Rome. The last three 
(as the legends suggest) were probably "tyrants," supported 
by the plebeians against the patricians. Thus the overthrow 
of kingship seems to have been an aristocratic victory. 

350. Expulsion of the "Tyrants." — The later Romans be- 
lieved that the last Tarquin oppressed the people and that the 
cruel deeds of his son finally roused the people to fury, so that 
they drove the family from Rome, abolished the kingship, and, 
in place of a king for life, chose two consuls for a year. This 
revolution is ascribed to the year 510, — the same year in 
which the Pisistratids were finally driven from Athens. But 

1 Compare these early revolutions with those at Athens (§§ 134-137). 



5 352] CONSULS AND SENATE 321 

while the Greek story is strictly historical, the Koman is mere 
legend. In after centuries the Romans hated the name king, 
and the feeling was created largely by the stories of Tarquin's 
cruelty. Probably, however, these stories were the inventions 
of the aristocrats long after the "expulsion."^ Certainly 
^' king " did not at once become a detested name. At Rome, 
as at Athens (§ 134), there remained a king-priest (rex sacro- 
rum), whose wife also kept the title of queen (regina). The 
legends themselves represent another Tarquin (Lucius Tar- 
quinius Collatinus) as one of the first two consuls ; nor is there 
any evidence that at first the consuls ruled only for one year. 
All that we really know is, that, in prehistoric Rome, the aris- 
tocratic patricians in some way reduced and finally abolished 
kingship. 

" The struggle was doubtless longer and sharper, and the new consti- 
tution more gradually shaped, than tradition would have us believe. 
Possibly, too, this revolution at Rome was but part of a wide-spreading 
wave of change in Latium and central Italy, similar to that which in 
Greece swept away the old heroic monarchies." — Pelham, Outlines of 
Boman History, 41. 

351. The Consuls have been called "Joint kings for one yearJ^ 

The kingship had becom'e elective, and it was divided between 
two men. The term of office, too, was finally limited to one 
year. But for that year the new consuls were " kings," nearly 
in full. They called and dissolved Assemblies at will. They 
alone could propose measures or nominate magistrates. They 
filled vacancies in the Senate. They ruled the city in peace, 
and commanded the army in war. 

352. Practical Checks. — In practice, however, three impor- 
tant checks appeared upon the power of the consuls. (1) Either 
consul might find any of his acts absolutely forbidden by his 

1 Students should tell some of these stories as they are given in Livy : for 
instance, Lake Regillus, Brutus and his sons, Horatius at the Bridge, and the 
Porsenna anecdotes. The second and third of these are reproduced in Davis' 
Readings, Vol. II, Nos. 7 and 8. This is a good place for the student, who has not 
before done so, to become acquainted with Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Borne. 



322 EARLY ROME [5 353 

colleague. (2) When they laid down their office, they became 
responsible to the centuries and the courts for their past acts. 
(3) Their short term made them dependent upon the advice of 
the permanent Senate, — against whose will it became almost 
impossible for them to act. 

A fourth limitation was less important. The kings had held power of 
life and death, without appeal ; but one of the early consuls, Valerius 
Publicola, secured a law that if a consul condemned a citizen to death, 
he must permit an appeal to the Assembly — except in war, when he 
kept the old power in full. 

353. The Senate's Gain. — Moreover, the relation of the 
Senate to a one-year consul was very different from its old 
subordinate relation to a life-king. The king had been jeal- 
ous of its powers ; the consul's highest ambition was to get 
into its ranks. Its advice became more and more a command, 
until, in fact, it became the main part of the government. 

354. The Dictatorship. — In time of peril, the division ot 
power between two consuls, with the possibility of a deadlock, 
might easily be fatal to the city. The remedy was found in 
temporary revivals of the old kingship under a new name. 
Either consul, at the request of the Senate, might appoint 
a dictator. This officer was absolute master of Rome, save 
that his term of office could not exceed six months. He was 
the two consuls in one, with half their length of office. He 
had power of life and death in the city as in the army ; and 
he could not be questioned for his acts even when he had laid 
down his powers. He could not, however, nominate a successor. 



For Further Reading. — Davis' Eeadings, Vol. II, Nos. 2-6, illus- 
trate various phases of Roman religion ; Pelham's Outlines, 15-17, treats 
of the proofs of separate settlements on the seven hills. 

Additional readings of value on the matter of this chapter may be 
found in Ihne's Early Some, chs.v-ix, Tighe's Boman Constitution, chs. 
ii-iii. Fowler's City State, chs. ii-iii. Students are advised to read one of 
these. The best treatment of the consulship is Ihne's Early Borne, chs. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
CLASS STRUGGLES IN THE REPUBLIC, 510-367 B.C. 

355. The Expulsion of the Kings followed by Class Conflicts. — The 
first century and a half of the Republic was a stem conflict between 
patricians and plebeians. Torn and distracted by the internal struggle, 
Rome made little gain externally, and indeed for a time she lost terri- 
tory. 

The peculiar mark of the long internal struggle was the absence of extreme 
violence. The vehement class conflicts in Greek cities were marked by 
bloody revolutions and counter-revolutions ; the contest in Rome was car- 
ried on " with a calmness, deliberation, and steadiness that corresponded 
to the firm, persevering, sober, practical Roman character." When the 
victory of the plebs was once won, the result was correspondingly per- 
manent. 

THE POSITION OF THE CLASSES AFTER 510 B.C. 

356. A Patrician Oligarchy. — The overthrow of the kings was 
in no sense a democratic movement. It left Rome an oligarchy. 
The last kings had leaned upon the lower orders. The ple- 
beians found themselves the losers in politics, in law, and in 
property rights, by the change. 

a. They could hold no office ; they could control only a mi- 
nority of votes in the Assembly ; and they had no way even to 
get a measure considered. At best, they could vote only upon 
laws proposed by patrician magistrates, and they could help 
elect only patrician officers, who had been nominated by other 
patricians. The patrician Senate, too, had a final veto upon 
any vote of the centuries ; and, in the last resort, the patrician 
consuls could always fall back upon the patrician augurs to 
prevent a possible plebeian victory.^ 

1 The augurs could prevent a vote by declaring the auspices unfavorable. 

323 



,324^ EARLY ROME, 510-367 B.C. [§357 

h. In law suits there was a like loss to the plebeians. The 
kings had found it to their interest to see justice done the plebs, 
but now law became again a patrician possession. It was un- 
written, and to the plebs almost unknown. It was easy, there- 
fore, in any dispute for a patrician to take shameful advantage. 

c. The laws regarding debt were cruelly severe,^ and here 
the patricians found their opportunity for oppression. The 
plebeians were liable to fall into debt for two reasons, — which 
require separate treatment (§§ 357, 358). 

357. The patricians now robbed the plebeians of their share in 
the public land. When Rome conquered a hostile city, she 
took away a half or a third of its territory. The kings had 
sometimes settled colonies of landless plebeians upon such land, 
but the greater portion of the new territory became a common 
pasture ground. It belonged to the state, and a small tax was 
paid for the right to graze cattle upon it. 

Strictly, even under the kings, only the patricians had the 
right to use this grazing land, but the kings had extended the 
privilege to the plebs also. The patricians now resumed their 
sole right, and thus reduced to painful straits the poorer 
plebeians who had eked out a scanty income from their small 
farms by such aid.^ At the same time, the sending out of col- 
onies of landless plebeians was stopped, partly because little 
land was won now for a long time, and partly because the 
patricians insisted upon keeping for themselves any that was 
secured.^ 

358. The conditions of warfare, also, bore more heavily upon 
the small farmer than upon the great landlord. The farmer was 
called away frequently to battle ; he had no servants to till his 
fields in his absence ; and his possessions were more exposed 

1 See the extracts in Munro's Source Book, 54, 55. 

2 To make matters worse, the patrician officers ceased to collect the grazing 
tax. Thus the public land was enjoyed by the patricians as private property, 
without purchase or tax, while, as a result, the tax on plebeian farms had to 
be increased, to supply the falling off to the treasury. 

3 An excellent brief treatment of the public land is given in Tighe, 82-88, 
and in Mommsen, I, 343-346. 



§362] CLASS STRUGGLES 325 

to hostile forays than were the strongly fortified holdings of 
his greater neighbor. Thus he might return to find his crops 
ruined by delay or his homestead in ashes, and he could no 
longer apply to the king — the patron of the plebs — for 
assistance. 

359. Results. — Thus, more and more, the plebeians were 
forced to borrow tax money from patrician money lenders or 
to get advances of seed corn and cattle from a neighboring 
patrician landlord. The debtor's land and his person were both 
mortgaged for payment. On failure to pay, the plebeian 
debtor became the property of the creditor. He was compelled 
thereafter to till his land (no longer his) for the creditor's ben- 
efit; or, if he refused to accept this result, he was cast into a 
dungeon, loaded with chains, and torn with stripes. 

360. Dissatisfaction of the Rich Plebeians, — To be sure, there 
were many plebeians who were rich in goods and lands, but 
they, too, were bitterly dissatisfied. This was true especially 
of the descendants of the ruling families of the conquered Latin 
towns whose populations had been removed to Eome. These 
men were aggrieved because they were not allowed to hold 
office or to intermarry with the old Roman families. Thus 
they became the natural leaders and organizers of the mass of 
poorer plebeians. 

THE STRUGGLE 

361. Objects. — The struggle of the plebeians to right these 
wrongs filled a century and a half (510-367 b.c). At first 
the masses clamored for relief from the cruel laws regarding 
debt, and for a share in the public lands. The leaders cared 
more for equality with the patricians in the law courts and 
for social equality and political office. Gradually the whole 
body of the plebeians, also, began to demand these things because 
they found that whatever economic rights they won were of no 
value, so long as the laws were carried out only by patrician officials. 

362. Methods. — Livy (§ 334) gives a graphic story of the first 
great clash between the classes (497 b.c). Probably the story 



326 



EARLY ROME, 510-367 B.C. 



[§362 



is essentially correct. (It is given in full in Davis' Readings^ 
II, No. 9.) It may be sununed up briefly as follows : — 

The plebs, driven to despair by the cruelty of patrician creditors, refused 
to serve in a war against the Volscians, until the consul won them over 
by freeing all debtors from prison. But when the army returned victo- 
rious, the other consul refused to recognize his collea'^ue's acts ; he arrested 




Bridge over the Anio To-day, on the road from Rome to the ** Sacred 

Mount." 

the debtors again, and enforced the law with merciless cruelty. On a 
renewal of the war, the betrayed plebs again declined to fight ; but finally 
Manius Valerius (of the great Valerian house "that loves the people 
well ") was made dictator, and him they trusted. Victory again followed ; 
but Valerius was unable to get the consent of the Senate to his proposed 
changes in the law. So the plebeian army, still in battle array outside the 
gates, marched away to a hill across the Anio, some three miles from 
Rome, where, they declared, they were going to build a Rome of their own. 
The " strike " brought the patricians to some real concessions (§ 363), and 
the plebs returned from the " Sacred Mount." 

This story resembles that of later conflicts. Once more, at 
least, during foreign war, the plebeian army " struck," and on 



§362] CLASS STRUGGLES 327 

other occasions it prepared to do so. Between these great crises, 
there was much bitter strife, with a few bloody conflicts in the 
city streets. Sometimes the plebs succeeded in driving a 
patrician consul into exile, after his term of office ; and at 
least one plebeian leader, Genucius, fell a victim to patrician 
daggers. The patricians were especially bitter toward any of 
their own order who were great-souled enough and brave enough 
\,o dare take the side of the people. 

The first such hero was Spiirius Cassius. He had served 
Rome gloriously in war and in statesmanship (§ 373). Finally, 
as consul, he proposed a reform in the selfish patrician manage- 
ment of the public lands. The patricians raised the cry that 
he was trying to win popular favor so as to make himself tyrant. 
The foolish plebeians allowed themselves to be frightened by 
the charge : they deserted their champion, and he was put to 
death. Under like conditions, two other heroes, Spurius Maelius 
and Marcus Manlius, the man who had saved Rome from the 
Gauls (§ 375), fell before like charges. Sometimes the later 
aristocratic historians blackened the memory of such "traitors" 
even further. There was Appius Claudius, who joined the ple- 
beians, in 451 B.C., in an effort to secure fixed wiHtten laws 
(§ 364). He was put to death by the patricians, and his over- 
throw was afterward represented as the work of a popular 
rising. Claudius, said the patrician story, seized the free maid 
Virginia as his slave girl ; her father, Virginius, a popular offi, 
cer, to save her from such shame, slew her with his own hand, 
and then called upon the army to avenge his wrongs ; his com. 
rades marched upon the tyrants and overthrew them. 

The story of Virginia has become so famous that the student ought to 
know it. We cannot tell whether or not there is any truth in it. Possi- 
bly Claudius did put the cause of the people in danger by selfish tyranny, 
and gave the patricians a handle against him ; but in any case we may be 
sure this was not the real cause of his overthrow ; and the popular rising, 
we know, was directed, not against him, but at his patrician murderers 
who were trying to cheat the people out of their previous gains. (See 
Ihne, Early Borne, 176.) 



328 EARLY ROME, 510-367 B.C. [§363 

The other most instructive feature of the contest is the way 
in which the aristocratic class by trick and superior skill, over 
and over again, took back with one hand what they had been 
forced to surrender with the other ; so that the masses had to 
win their cause many times, to really secure the fruits of victory. 

The steps by which the plebs rose to equality with the patricians 
are treated in the folloioing sections {363-372). 

363. Tribunes. — The first secession gave the plebs the right 
to choose tribunes, with power to protect oppressed plebeians 
against cruel laws. It was agreed that the tribunes should 
have the right to stop any magistrate in any act by merely 
calling out veto ("I forbid") — just as one consul could 
"veto" another. This veto could be exercised only within the 
city (not in war), and by the tribunes in person. Hence a trib- 
une's door was left always unlocked, so that a plebeian in 
trouble might have instant admission. At first two tribunes 
were elected each year. Later the number was increased to ten. 
The person of a tribune was declared sacred ; and a curse was 
invoked upon any man who should interfere with their acts — 
which, however, did not save the tribune Genucius from 
assassination (§ 362). 

At the close of a patrician consul's term of office, too, the 
tribune could impeach him, and bring him up for trial before 
the Assembly, for offenses against the people. The power of 
veto, too, was extended until a tribune could forbid even the 
putting of a question to vote in the Assembly ; and from a 
seat just outside the Senate door he could stop any proceeding 
in that body by crying out a loud veto. Thus the tribunes 
could bring the whole patrician government to a standstill. 

" Absolute prohibition was in the most stern and abrupt fashion op- 
posed to absolute command ; and the quarrel was settled (?) by recog- 
nizing and regulating the discord."— Mommsen, I, 354, 355. 

364. Written Laws. — About 460 b.c. the plebeians began to 
demand written laws. (Compare with the Athenian demands, 
before Draco.) The patricians opposed the demand furiously ; 



5 3651 CLASS STRUGGLES 329 

but after a ten-year contest a board of ten men ( Decemvirs ) 
was elected to put the laws into writing. Their laws were 
engraved on tv/elve stone tables, in short, crisp sentences, and 
set up where all might read them. 

These " La,ws of the Twelve Tables " were the basis of all 
later Roman law. Like the first written laws at Athens, they 
were very severe, and were for the most part simply old 
customs reduced to writing. The new thing about them was 
that they were now known to all, and that they applied to 
plebeian and patrician alike.^ 

365. The Assembly of Tribes. — At some early date (legend 
says in the days of Servius), the city and its territory outside 
the walls had been divided into twenty-one "wards,'' or "tribes," 
for the military levy. Like the "tribes" of Clisthenes at 
Athens, these tribes were territorial, and had nothing to do 
with the three patrician blood tribes. In some way the meet- 
ing of the inhabitants of these local units grew into a regular 
" Assembly." The plebeians, who had no complete organiza- 
tion in clans and curias, made use of this new Assembly of 
Tribes for purposes of government. It was here they chose 
their tribunes, and adopted their plans, and passed decrees 
(plebiscita) binding upon all of their order. The tribunes called 
this Assembly together and presided over it, as the consuls did 
with the Assembly of Centuries. Probably a patrician had 
a right to attend the meeting of the "tribe" in which he 
lived ; but at this stage he would not care to do so. 

The plebeians, finding themselves helpless in the Assembly 
of Centuries, began to insist upon bringing oppressive patrician 
consuls for trial before this Assembly of Tribes. Then, a little 
later, they demanded that the plebiscites of their Assembly 
should be law, binding upon the whole state, just as the decrees 
of the Assembly of Centuries were. This point they finally 
carried, though the Senate kept a veto upon the decrees of 
both Assemblies. 

1 See extracts in Munro's Source Book, 54-55. 



330 EARLY ROME, 510-367 B.C. [§366 

Thus a half century of conflict had failed indeed to admit the plebeians 
into the patrician state ; but it had instead set up a double state, — a 
plebeian state over against the old patrician state ; Assembly of Tribes 
and its tribunes over against the Assembly of Centuries and its consuls. 
There was no real arbiter between the two states, and no check upon 
civil war except the Roman moderation and preference for constitutional 
methods. The next work was to fuse these two governments into one. 

366. Social Fusion. — The plebeians used their new powers to 
win further victories. Soon after its recognition, the Assem- 
bly of Tribes decreed that plebeians should have the right to 
marry with patricians. Then the Senate was forced to ap- 
prove this plebiscite by the threat of another secession. 

From this time, the two orders began to mix in social matters, 
and this prepared the way for political fusion. Those patri- 
cians who had plebeian relatives were not likely to oppose 
bitterly the demands of that class for political honors. Still 
the final contest was a long one. About the same time (445 
B.C.) the plebeians began a seventy-eight-year struggle for ad- 
mission to the office of the consul (§§ 367 ff.). 

367. Consular Tribunes. — In 445 the tribes voted that the 
people should be allowed to choose a plebeian for one of the 
consuls. The Senate refused to allow the " religious " office of 
consul to be " polluted," but they offered a compromise. Ac- 
cordingly it was decided to have no consuls in some years, but 
instead to elect military tribunes with consular power, and this 
office was to be open to both patricians and plebeians. 

368. Censors. — At the same time, with their old stronghold threat- 
ened, the patricians prepared an inner fortress for defense of their priv- 
ileges. A new office, the censorship, was created, to take over the religious 
part of the consul's duty and his most important powers. To this office, 
only patricians could be elected. Every fifth year two censors were chosen, 
with power to revise the lists of the citizens and of the Senate. By 
their mere order they could deprive any man of citizenship, or degrade 
a senator. They also exercised a general moral oversight over the state. ^ 

1 Ihne's Early Rome, 184-189, has an admirable treatment of the censors. 
Either censor could veto action by the other. Their tremendous power was 
used commonly with moderation, aod not for partisan ends. 



§371] CLASS STRUGGLES 331 

369. Patrician Maneuvers. — It had been left to the Senate 
to decide each year whether consuls or consular tribunes should 
be elected. The Senate used this authority to secure the 
election of consuls (who, of course, had to be patricians) twenty 
times out of the next thirty-five years. And even when con- 
sular tribunes were chosen, the patrician influence in the 
Assembly of Centuries kept that office for their own order 
every time for almost half a century. 

370. The Licinian Laws, 367 B.C. — In 400, 399, and 396, how- 
ever, the plebeians won in the election of the consular tribunes, 
and thereafter they never lost ground. An invasion by the 
Gauls in 390 (§ 375) almost ruined Rome and thrust aside 
party conflict for a time ; but in 377 the final campaign began. 
Under the wise leadership of the tribune Lidnius Stolo, the 
whole body of plebeians united firmly on a group of measures. 
These were proposed to the Assembly by Licinius, and are 
known as the Licinian Rogations. 

The three most important demands were : — 

(1) that the office of consul should be restored, and that at 
least one consul each year should be a plebeian ; 

(2) that no citizen should hold more than 500 jugera of the 
public la7ids (an acre is nearly two jugera) ; 

(3) that payment of debts might be postponed for three 
years, and that the interest already paid should be deducted 
from the amount of the debt. 

The first measure was what the leaders, TiVe nicinius, cared most for. 
The second and third secured the support of the masses. These meas- 
ures, also, were wise and helpful. The one regarding debts had been 
made necessary by the distress that followed the invasion by the Gauls. 
The land acts were not acts of confiscation, from any point of view. Like 
the early attempt of Spurius Cassius (§ 362), they were a righteous effort 
to recover the people's property from wealthy patrician squatters. 

371. Final Victory of the Plebs. — The proposal of these re- 
forms was followed by ten years of bitter wrangling. Each 
year the plebeians reelected Licinius and passed the decrees 
anew in the Assembly of the Tribes. Each time the Senate 



332 EARLY ROME, 510-367 B.C. [§372 

vetoed the measures. Then the tribunes, by their veto power, 
prevented the election of magistrates during the year, and so 
left the state without any regular government.^ At last the 
patricians tried to buy off the masses, by offering to yield on 
the matters of debts and lands if they would drop the demand 
regarding the consulship. But Licinius succeeded in holding 
his party together for the full program of reform ; and, in 367, 
the Senate gave way and the plebeian decrees became law. 

372. Political Fusion completed, 367-300 B.C. — The long 
struggle was practically over, and the body of the patricians 
soon accepted the result with good grace. Just at first, to be 
sure, they tried again to save something from the wreck by 
creating a third, and patrician, consul — called the praetor — 
for supreme judicial control in the city.^ But all such devices 
were in vain. Plebeian consuls could nominate plebeians for 
other offices. A plebeian secured the office of dictator in 356 ; 
another became censor in 351, and one was chosen praetor in 
337. In 300 even the sacred colleges of pontiffs and augurs 
were thrown open to them. 

Appointments to the Senate were commonly made from those 
who had held office, and so that body, also, gradually became 
plebeian. By the year 300, the old distinction between patri- 
cians and plebeians had practically died out. 



For Further Reading. — Specially recommended : Davis' Readings^ 
II, Nos. 9 and 10 (which have been noticed in footnotes and text 
above) ; Ihne's Early Borne, 136-151, 165-190 ; or How and Leigh, 
62-58, 65-77, 91-94. 

Additional : Pelham's Outlines, 64-69, gives in compact form a some- 
what different view of these class struggles. 

1 During the peril of a foreign attack, however, they withdrew from this 
extreme ground and permitted consuls to be chosen. Read Livy's account of 
the long contest in Davis' Readings, II, No. 10. 

2 The consul had had three functions, religious, civil, and military. As the 
plebs gained ground, the patricians first reserved the religious duties to the 
patrician censor, and now the chief civil powers to the patrician praetor, in- 
tending to share with the plebs only the military ofl&ce. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY, 367-266 BX. 

PROGRESS BEFORE 367 B.C. 

373. Gains under the Kings, and the Reaction to 449 b.c. — 

The story of Rome's early wars is full of patriotic legends,^ 
but the general trend of her growth is fairly clear. Under 
the kings she had conquered widely ; but, after 510, the Latin 
towns became independent again and much territory was seized 
by the Etruscans. Eor the next sixty years Rome fought for 
life. Etruscan, Volscian, and Sabine armies often ^ appeared 
under her very walls, and many times the peril was made more 
deadly by the fierce conflict of classes within the city. 

In 493, it is true, the Latin league was united to Rome, by 
treaty,^ as an equal ally, and so a bulwark was provided 
against the Volscians (map, page 305). But the chief danger 
lay in the Etruscans, and from this enemy Rome was saved, 
mainly, by outside events. Just at this time the Gauls of the 
north broke the power of Etruria on land, and the tyrants of 
Syracuse (§ 160) shattered her superiority on the sea. 

374. The Period 449-367 : Slow Gains — After the decemvirs 
(§ 364), when the bitterest internal dissensions were past, Rome 
began to make steady gains. By slow degrees she became 
again the mistress of the Latin league; and, in 396, after 
fourteen long wars, she finally destroyed Veii, sl dangerous 
rival, only a few hours' walk distant, in Etruria. Here she 
began the merciless policy which she was to show toward 

1 The story of Cincinnatus (§ 409) is given in Davis' Readings, II, No. 11. 
Special report : a Roman triumph (see especially Munro's Source Book, 38-40), 
3 This important treaty was the work of Spurius Cassius (§ 362). 

333 



334 ROME BECOMES MISTRESS OF ITALY [§375 

many rival capitals in time to come, by exterminating the 
population and laying waste the site of the city. 

375. The Gauls. — Six years later the city was again for a 
time in danger of utter destruction. In 390, a horde of Gauls, 
who had overrun Etruria, defeated the Roman army in the 
battle of the Allia, twelve miles from the walls, and cut it off 
from the city. Fortunately, the barbarians squandered three 
days in pillage, and so gave time to save Rome. The sacred 





The City Seal of Syracuse. 
(A coin of 480 B.C.) 



A Coin of Syracuse about 
400 B.C. 



fire was hastily removed ; the helpless inhabitants fled ; anc^ 
a small garrison, under the soldier Marcus Manlius (§ 362), 
garrisoned the Capitoline citadel. 

The Gauls sacked the rest of the city and held it seven 
months. But their host was ravaged by the deadly malaria 
of the Roman plain (which has more than once been Rome's 
best protection) ; they had little skill or patience for a regular 
siege ; and finally they withdrew on the payment of a ransom.^ 



THE REAL ADVANCE, 367-266 B.C. 

376. United Rome and her Rapid Growth. — Rome recovered 
rapidly from the Gallic conquest; and the slow growth of 

1 Special reports : the sack of the city ; the geese of the capitol ; Brennus, 
the Gallic chief, and his sword at the scales ; the later fiction of the Roman 
victory. See Davis' Readings, II, Nos. 12, 13. 



§379] CHAMPION OF ITALIAN CIVILIZATION 335 

territory up to this time contrasts strikingly with the swift 
advance that was to come in the next hundred years. The 
difference was due mainly to the difference in internal con- 
ditions. TJielong strife of classes closed in 367 B.C. (§ S71). 
The process of amalgamation that had originally merged the three 
separate hill towns into the patrician state had at length fused this 
patrician state and the newer plebeian state into one Roman people. 
Now this united Rome turned to the work of uniting Italy. Tliis 
task filled a century. 

377. The Champion of Italian Civilization. — Other states in 
Italy had suffered by the Gauls as much as Rome, or more. 
Rome at once stood forth as the champion of Italian civiliza- 
tion against the barbarians. After her own immediate peril 
was past, she followed up the invaders of Italy in strenuous 
campaigns, until they withdrew to the Po valley. In like man- 
ner, she was soon to be recognized as the champion of the civi- 
lized lowland Italians against the more savage Italian tribes of 
the Apennine valleys (§ 331). It was in such ways that 
Rome at first earned her right to empire. 

378. The Lowlands of Central Italy. — The Latin towns had 
seized the opportunity of the Gallic invasion to throw off Ro- 
man leadership ; but another short war made Rome again the 
mistress of Latium. The southern half of Etruria, too, was 
soon seized ; and on both north and south the new acquisitions 
were garrisoned by Roman colonies. 

Next Campania was added. The cities of that fertile plain 
were being ravaged by the rude " Hill " Samnites, and so they 
appealed to Rome for aid. Rome repulsed the mountain tribes ; 
and, in return, the cities of the Campanian plain became her 
tributaries. 

379. The Last Latin Revolt. — Now that the Samnites seemed 
no longer dangerous, the Latins once more broke into revolt. 
This was the great Latin War of 838 B.C. In the end, the ris- 
ing was crushed and the Latin league dissolved. Its public 
land became Roman. Some of its cities were brought into the 
Roman state, — their inhabitants being listed as citizens in the 



336 ROME BECOMES MISTRESS OF ITALY [§380 

Roman "tribes." The less fortunate cities were bound to 
Rome as subjects, each by its separate treaty, and they were al- 
lowed no intercourse with one another (except through Rome) 
either in politics or in trade. 

380. Last Struggle for Central Italy : Samnite Wars. — The 
leadership of central Italy now lay between Rome, the great 
city-state of the lowlands, and the warlike Samnite tribes, which 
were spread widely over the southern Apennines. The deci- 
sive struggle between the two began in 326, and lasted, with 
brief truces, to 290 B.C. Both combatants were warlike, and 
they were not unequally matched. The Samnites trusted 
partly for defense to their mountain fastnesses ; and Rome 
found safety in the chains of fortress colonies she had been 
building (§ 384). 

Early in the war (321 b.c) the Samnites won an overwhelm- 
ing victory. The whole Roman army was entrapped at the 
Caudine Forlcs in a narrow pass between two precipices. The 
Samnite leader, Pontius, made a treaty with the consuls by 
which the Romans were to withdraw all their posts from Sam- 
nium and to stop the war. He then let the captives go, after 
sending them "under the yoke."^ The fruits of the victory, 
however, were lost, because the Romans refused to abide by 
the treaty. 

According to the Boman story, the Senate declared that only the Ro- 
man Assembly, not the consuls alone, had power to make such a treaty. 
In place of their rescued army, they delivered to the Samnites the two 
consuls, naked and in chains, saying, through the herald: "These men 
have wronged you by promising, without authority, to make a treaty with 
you. Therefore we hand them over to you." Then one of the consuls 
(who is said to have suggested the whole plan) pushed against the Roman 
herald, and said, " I am now a Samnite, and, by striking the Roman her- 
aid, I have given the Romans the right to make war upon the Samnites." 
The Romans pretended that these forms released them from all obliga- 
tion, and resumed the war. 

iThis humiliation consisted in obliging the captives to come forth one by 
one, clad only in shirts, and pass, with bowed head, between two upright 
spears upon which rested a third. 



§381] 



SAMNITE WARS 



337 




A Coin of Pyrrhus. 



Then the Samnites built up a great alliance, which soon came 
to contain nearly all the states of Italy, together with the Cisal- 
pine Gauls. But, using to the full the advantage of her central 
position (§ 333), Rome beat these foes, one by one, before they 
could unite their forces ; and at the close of the long conflict 
(290 B.C.) she had become mistress of all the true peninsula, 
except the Greek cities of the south. 

381. War with Pyrrhus. — Ten years later began the last great 
war for territory in Italy. The Greek cities at this moment 
were harassed by neigh- 
boring mountaineers, and 
they called in Eoman aid, 
as Campania had done 
sixty years before. Thus 
Roman lordship became 
established throughout 
the south, except in Tar- 
entum. That great city wished to keep her independence, and 
sought help from Pyrrhus, the chivalrous king of Epirus. 

Pyrrhus was one of the most remarkable of the Greek mili- 
tary adventurers who arose after the death of Alexander. He 
came to Italy with a great armament and with vast designs. 

He hoped to unite 
the Greek cities 
of Magna Graecia 
and Sicily, and 
then to subdue 
Carthage, the an- 
cient enemy of 
Hellenes in the 
West. That is, 
he planned to 
play in western Hellas and in Africa the part already played 
by Alexander in eastern Hellas and in Asia. 

Pyrrhus knew little of Rome ; but at the call of Tarentum 
he found himself engaged as a Greek champion with this neiiy 




Coin of Pyrrhus, struck in Sicily. 



338 ROME BECOMES MISTRESS OF ITALY [§381 

power. He won some victories, chiefly through his elephants, 
which the Romans had never before encountered. Then most 
of southern Italy deserted Rome to join him ; but, anxious to 
carry out his wider plans, he offered a favorable peace. Under 
the leadership of an aged and blind senator, Appius Claudius,^ 
defeated Rome answered haughtily that she would treat with 
no invader while he stood upon Italian soil. Pyrrhus chafed at 
the delay, and finally hurried off to Sicily, leaving his victory 
incomplete. The steady Roman advance called him back, 
and a great Roman victory at Beneventum (275 b.c. ) ruined 
his dream of empire and gave Rome that sovereignty of Italy 
which she had just claimed so resolutely. In 266, she rounded 
off her work by the conquest of that part of Cisalpine Gaul 
which lay south of the Po. 



For Further Reading. — Specially recommended : Davis' Readings^ 
II, Nos. 13-15 ; and Pelham's Outlines, 68-97 (the best compact treat- 
ment of the conquest of Italy). 

Additional: There is an excellent brief summary of Rome's method in 
Smith's Borne and Carthage, 27. 

Exercise. — (1) Review the growth of Rome, 510-266 b.c, by catch- 
words (see p. 186), with the important dates. (2) Make a list of terms 
for rapid explanation (see p. 162), from chapters xix-xxiv, especially 
from chapter xxiii. 

iSee the story from Livy in Davis' Readings, II, No. 15. For Appius 
Claudius, see also §§ 395, 399 a, and 402. 



CHAPTER XXV 
UNITED ITALY UNDER ROMAN RULE 

382. Rome and Subject Italy. — Italy now contained some 5,000,000 
people. More than a fourth of these (some 1,400,000) were Roman 
citizens. The rest were subjects, outside the Roman state. These fig- 
ures do not include slaves ; but there were not yet many slaves in Italy. 

THE ROMAN STATE 

383. Classes of Citizens. — It had come to pass that the major- 
ity of Roman citizens did not live at Rome. Large parts of 
Latium and Etruria and Campania had become " suburbs " of 
Rome (although in the midst even of these districts there were 
many subject communities); and other towns of Roman citizens 
were found in distant parts of Italy. Indeed, partly because of 
difference in place of residence, the citizens fall into three classes : 
(1) the inhabitants of Eome itself, (2) members of Roman colo- 
nies, and (3) members of Roman municipia (§§ 384, 385). 

384. Colonies. — From an early date (§ 339) Rome had planted 
colonies of her citizens about the central city as military posts. 
The colonists and their descendants kept all the rights of citizens. 
Each colony had control over its local affairs in an Assembly of 
its own ; but in order to vote upon matters that concerned the 
state the colonists had to come to Rome at the meeting of the 
Assembly there. This, of course, was usually impossible. 
Representative government had not been worked out ; and hence it 
was not possible for all the people of a large state to have an 
equal opportunity to attend meetings of the Assembly and to take 
part in political affairs. 

385. Municipia. — While Rome ruled parts of her conquests 
as subject communities, there were also many conquered towns 
which she incorporated into the state in full equality. This had 

339 



340 ROME AND UNITED ITALY (§386 

become the case with most of the Latin cities, with the Sabine 
towns, and with some other communities. 

A town so annexed to the Roman state was called a muni- 
cipium. Like a Roman colony, the inhabitants of a muni- 
cipium managed their own local affairs, and, by coming to 
Rome, they could vote in the Assembly of the Tribes upon all 
Roman and imperial questions. They had also all the other 
rights of citizens. The municipia and the colonies differed 
chiefly in the matter of origin. 

Besides the colonies and municipia, there were also many small hamlets 
of Roman citizens settled upon the public lands in distant parts of Italy. 
The dwellers in such hamlets kept their citizenship in Rome itself or in 
some colony or municipium, according to their origin. 

The municipia represent a political advance, — a new contribution to 
empire-making. Athens had had cleruchies corresponding to the Roman 
colonies (§§ 148,206), but she had never learned to give citizenship to 
conquered states. Therefore Rome, by 266 B. c, had a " citizen " body 
five times as large as Athens ever had. Later, Rome extended the prin- 
ciple of municipia to distant parts of Italy, and finally even more widely. 

386. Organization in "Tribes." — To suit this expansion of 
the state, the twenty-one Roman " tribes " (§ 365) were in- 
creased gradually to thirty-five, — four in the city, the rest in 
adjoining districts. At first these were real divisions of ter- 
ritory, and a man changed his " tribe " if he changed his resi- 
dence. At the point we have reached, however, this was no 
longer true. A man, once enrolled in a given tribe, remained 
a member, no matter where he lived, and his son after him ; and 
as new communities were given citizenship, they were enrolled 
in the old thirty ^five tribes, — sometimes whole new municipia, 
far apart, in the same tribe. Each tribe kept its one vote in 
the Assembly. 

387. Privileges and Burdens of Citizens. — Rome and her 
citizens owned directly one third the land of Italy. All Roman 
citizens, too, had certain valued rights, as follows : — 

a. Private Eights: (1) the right to acquire property, with 
the protection of the Roman law, in any of Rome's possessions ; 



§389] ROMAN SUBJECTS 341 

and (2) the right of intermarriage in any Roman or subject 
community. 

b. Public rights: (1) the right to vote in the Assembly of the 
Tribes ; (2) the right to hold any offices ; and (3) the right to 
appeal to the Assembly if condemned to death or to bodily 
punishment. 

In return for these privileges, the citizens furnished half the 
army of Italy and paid all the direct taxes. 

THE SUBJECTS 

388. Three Classes of Subjects. — Rome was not yet ready to give up 
the idea of a city-state; and so, beyond a certain limit, all new acquisi- 
tions of territory were necessarily reduced to some form of subjection. 
Outside the Roman state was subject-Italy, in three main classes, Latin 
Colonies, Prefectures, and '■'■Allies. " 

389. The Latin Colonies. — Highest in privilege among the 
subjects stood the Latins. This name did not apply now to 
the old Latin towns (nearly all of which had become muni- 
cipia), but to a new kind of colonies sent out by Rome after 
338, far beyond Latium. 

These colonists were not granted citizenship, as were the 
Roman colonies, but only the Latin right, based on the rights 
enjoyed by the towns of the Latin Confederacy under the 
ancient alliance with Rome (§ 373). That is, their citizens 
had thQ private rights of Romans; and they might acquire full 
public 7'ights also, and become Roman citizens in all respects, 
by removing to Rome and enrolliiig in one of the tribes. At first 
this removal was permitted to any member of a Latin colony 
who left a son in his own city to represent hiiiq^ ; but in the later 
colonies the privilege was restricted to those who had held some mag- 
istracy in the colony. In local affairs, like the Roman colonies 
and the municipia, the Latin colonies had full self-government. 

The poorer landless citizens of Rome could well afford the 
slight sacrifice of citizenship that came from joining a Latin 
colony, in return for the gain they secured as the aristocracy 
of a new settlement. There were thirty-five Latin colonies Id 



342 ROME AND UNITED ITALY [§390 

Italy before the Carthaginian invasion (§ 439). They num- 
bered originally from three hundred to six thousand male colo- 
nists each, and they grew by drawing in settlers from the 
Italian populations about them. They are notable in three 
respects : — 

a. They were a chief instrument in Romanizing Italy in 
language and institutions. Inscriptions show that they copied 
the Roman city constitution, even to such names as consuls 
and tribunes. 

h. From a military point of view, like the Roman colonies, 
they were garrisons, protecting the distant parts of the penin- 
sula against revolt or invasion. An enemy could rarely assail 
their walls successfully ; and he was rash indeed to pass on, 
leaving them to fall upon his rear. 

c. Politically, they added a new element of elasticity to the 
rigid system of citizenship common in ancient states. They 
formed a link between full citizens and permanent subjects. 

390. The class of prefectures was the least enviable, but it 
was very small. It consisted of three or four conquered towns, 
too deep offenders to warrant them in asking either the " Latin 
right" or "alliance." Apparently, they were all old muni- 
cipia, which had been degraded in punishment for rebellion. 
They bore all the burdens of Roman citizenship, and some of 
them had part of t\iQ private rights; but they had no self-govern- 
ment. Alone of all cities in Italy, they had their local govern- 
ment administered for them by prefects sent out from Rome. 

391. The Italian "Allies." — Most numerous of all the in- 
habitants of Italy stood the mass of subject Greeks, Italians, 
and Etruscans, under the general name of Italian Allies. 
These cities ranked in privilege next to the Latin colonies; 
but among themselves they differed greatly in condition. Each 
one was bound to Rome by its separate treaty, and these treaties 
varied widely. None of the " Allies," however, had either the 
private or public rights of Romans, and they were isolated jeal- 
ously one from another; but in general they bore few burdens 
and enjoyed local self-government and Roman protection. 



full rights, but able to exercise political power only 
by coming to Rome to the Assembly. 



§394] ROMAN POLICY 343 

392. The following table shows the gradations of Italian communities, 
and the way in which one class merged into another. 

1. Rome 

2. Roman 

Colonies 
and 
Municipia 

3. Latin Colonies : private rights of Roman citizens, and possibility of 
acquiring full citizenship. 

4 "Allies": local self-government and Roman protection; lightly 
burdened, but no Roman rights. 

5. Prefectures : no self-government. 

ROME AND HER SUBJECTS: SUMMARY 

393. Advantages and Restrictions of the Subjects. — No one of 

the "subject cities" (Latin colony, municipium, or prefecture) 
had any one of the three great rights of making war, concluding 
treaties, or coining money. With the exception of the small class 
of prefectures, they did retain nearly complete self-government 
in other matters. Each kept its own Assembly, Senate, and 
magistrates ; and, in general, each retained its own law and 
custom. They paid no tribute, except to provide their small 
share of troops for war. 

Thus where Eome refused to confer citizenship, she did, 
with rare insight and magnanimity, lessen burdens and leave 
local freedom. At the same time she bestowed order, tran- 
quillity, and prosperity. The calamities of great wars strike 
our imagination ; but they cause infinitely less suffering than 
the everlasting petty wars of neighbors, with pillage and 
slaughter diffused everywhere. Roman supremacy put a 
stop to these endless and wasting feuds. Moreover, so 
far as Italy was concerned, the field of conflict, even in Rome's 
great wars, was thenceforth to be mostly beyond her borders. 

394. Rome's Policy. — The citizens enrolled in the thirty-five 
Roman tribes were the rulers of Italy. None others possessed 
any of the imperial power. They, or their ofiicers, decided 
upon war and peace, made treaties, issued the only coinage 



344 



ROME AND UNITED ITALY 



[§394 



permitted, and fixed the number of soldiers which the subject 
cities must furnish for war. 

It should be noted that there are two phases of the Roman 
genius for rule, — one admirable and the other mean but effec- 
tive. 

a. Incorporation and Tolerance. Rome grew strong first by 
a wise and generous incorporation of her conquests. With this 




The Appian Way To-day, with Ruins of the Aqueduct of Claudius 
IN THE Background. The Aqueduct was carried for long distances on 
arches. It was built nearly four centuries later than the Appian Way. 
See pp. 468, 490. 



strength, she won wider physical victories. And over her sub- 
jects she won also spiritual dominion by her intelligence, jus- 
tice, and firmness, and especially by a marvelous toleration for 
local customs and rights. 

h. Jealousy and Isolation. At the same time, Rome strictly 
isolated the subject communities from one another. She dis- 
solved all tribal confederacies j she took skillful advantage of 



§395] ROMAN ROADS 345 

the grades of inferiority that she had created among her de* 
pendents to foment jealousies and to play off one class of com- 
munities against another. Likewise, within each city, she set 
class against class, on the whole favoring an aristocratic organ- 
ization. In politics as in war, the policy of her statesmen 
was ^^ Divide and conquer." 

Thus Rome combined the imperial system of Athens (with 
improvements) with phases of that of Sparta. The general re- 
sult was admirable. The rule of Rome in Italy was not an 
absolutism, as it was to be later over more distant conquests. 
The whole Italian stock had become consolidated under a lead- 
ing city. In form, and to a great degree in fact, Italy was a 
confederacy; but it was a confederacy with all the connecting 
lines radiating from Rome — a confederacy under a Queen-city. 
The allies had no connection with each other except through 
the head city. Even the physical ties — the famous roads that 
marked her dominion and strengthened it — " all led to Rome." 

395. The Roman roads were a real part of the Roman system 
of government. They were bonds of union. Rome began her 
system of magnificent roads in 312 B.C. by building the Via 
Appia to the new possessions in Campania. This was the 
work of the censor Appius Claudius (§ 402). Afterward all 
ItSilj, and then the growing empire outside Italy, was traversed 
by a network of such roads, Nothing was permitted to obstruct 
their course. Mountains were tunneled ; rivers were bridged ; 
marshes were spanned for miles by viaducts of masonry. 

The construction was slow and costlyc First the workmen 
removed all loose soil down to some firm strata, preferably the 
native rock. Then was laid a layer of large stones, then one 
of smaller, and at least one more of smaller ones still, — all 
bound together — some two feet in thickness — by an excel- 
lent cement. The top was then carefully leveled and smoothly 
paved with huge slabs of rock fitted to one another with the 
greatest nicety. These roads made the best means of com- 
munication the world was to see until the time of railroads. 
They were so carefully constructed, too, that their remains, in 



346 ROME AND UNITED ITALY [§395 

good condition to-day, still " mark the lands where Eome has 
ruled." They were designed for military purposes ; but they 
helped other intercourse and held Italy together socially. (Cf. 
§ 77, for Persian roads.) 



For Further Reading in these Divisions (The Roman State and the 
Subjects) : Specially recommended^ Pelham's OutlineSf 97-107. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

GOVERNMENT OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 

396. The officers of chief dignity, from least to greatest 
were : — 

Aediles (two), with oversight over police and public works ; 

Praetors (two), with the chief judicial power ; 

Consuls (two), commanders in war and leaders in foreign 
policy ; 

Censors (two), § 368 ; 

Dictator (one), in critical times only (§ 354). 

These five were called curule offices, because the holders, 
dividing among them the old royal power, kept the right to 
use the curule chair — the ivory " throne " ^ of the old kings. 
There were also the two inferior aediles, the eight quaestors (in 
charge of the treasury and with some judicial power), and the 
ten tribunes. This last office, though less in dignity than 
the curule offices, was perhaps most important of all. The 
tribune's old duties were gone ; but he had become a political 
leader, and he kept his tremendous power of veto. 

Except the censor these officers held authority for only one 
year (the dictator for only a half-year), but they exercised 
great power. The magistrate still called and adjourned As- 
semblies as he liked ; he alone could put proposals before 
them ; and he controlled debate and amendment. 

397. A new aristocracy had appeared, composed of the descend- 
ants of curule officers. Each such official, by law, transmitted 
to his descendants the right to keep upon the walls of their 
living rooms the wax masks of ancestors, and to carry them in 



1 This symbol of dignity was very simple, — much in the character of an 
ivory camp-stool. * 

347 



348 



THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 200 B.C. 



l§397 



a public procession at the funeral of a member of the family, 
A chief part of such a funeral was an oration commemorating 




the virtues and deeds of the ancestors, whose images were pres- 
ent.^ Eamilies with this privilege were called nobles (nobiles). 
Before the year 300 b.c, the nobles began to be jealous of 
the admission of " new men " to their ranks ; and their united 
influence soon controlled nearly all curule elections in favor of 

1 See Davis' Readings, II, No. 19, on Roman state funerals. 



§399] GOVERNMENT 349 

some member of their own order. To make this easier, they 
secured a law fixing the order in which these offices could be 
attained. No one could be elected aedile until he had held the 
quaestorship, nor praetor till he had been aedile, nor consul 
till he had been praetor. Then the nobles had to watch the 
elections only of the first rank of officers. By controlling these, 
they could control admission to their order.^ Thus all the 
nobles became practically an hereditary oligarchy of a few hun- 
dred families. And since senators had to be appointed from 
those who had held curule offices, each "noble" family was 
sure to have a senator among its near relatives, if not in its own 
home. "Nobles" became equivalent to the Senatorial order. 

398. The Assemblies. — The Assemblies by curias, by cen- 
turies, and by tribes continued to exist side by side; but the 
center of gravity had shifted again, — as once before from the 
curias to the centuries, so now from the centuries to the tribes. 
The political function of the Curiate Assembly had become 
purely formal in very early times (§ 346). The Centuriate 
Assembly continued to elect consuls, censors, and praetors ; 
but its law-making power and the choice of all other officers 
had passed to the Assembly of Tribes. Of course, as this 
change took place, the rich citizens took their place in this 
Assembly ; ^ but in deciding the vote of a tribe, each member, 
rich or poor, counted like any other member. 

399. Changes in the Assemblies. — During the century between 
the Licinian Laws and the war with Pyrrhus, three or four 
legal reforms were adopted, to make the political Assemblies 
more powerful and more democratic. 

a. In 312, a reforming censor, Appius Claudius, enrolled the 
landless citizens in the tribes. Up to this time, only land- 

1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 14 (section on the Aedileship of Flavins), illus- 
trates the hostility of the aristocrats to the " new men," and gives also the 
story of democratic reforms. See, too, Dr. Davis' introduction to No. 14. For 
a compact modern treatment, see Pelham's Outlines, 170-172. 

2 A descendant of an old patrician family now belonged to all three Assem- 
blies ; a plebeian belonged to the Assembly of Centuries and to the Assembly 
of Tribes. 



350 THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 200 B.C. [§400 

holders had had a voice there. Appius carried this extension of 
the franchise unconstitutionally, in defiance of the veto of his 
colleague. The aristocratic party did not venture to undo the 
act, but they did modify it : a few years later another censor 
put all the landless class into the four city tribes alone, so that 
the city poor might not outvote the rural landowners.^ 

b. About the same time a change took place in the Centuri- 
ate Assembly, by which each of the Jive classes (§ 348) secured 
an equal voice, and wealth lost most of its supremacy. 

c. In 287, after some dissension and a threatened secession, 
the Hortensian Law took from the Senate its veto upon the plebi- 
scites of the tribes. Somewhat earlier the Senate had lost all 
veto over the elections in the centuries. 

These changes made Rome a democracy, in law; but 
in practice they were more than counterbalanced by the way 
in which the nobles controlled the Senate and the curule 
offices. 

400. The Senate. — Indirectly, the Senate had been made 
elective. The censors were required to fill vacancies in that 
body first from those who had held curule offices, and ordinarily 
this left them little choice. The senatorial veto upon the As- 
semblies, too, had been taken away. So far as written law was 
concerned, the Senate was only an advisory body. 

None the less it was really the guiding force in the government. 
It contained the wisdom and experience of Rome. The pres- 
sure of constant and dangerous wars, and the growing com- 
plexity of foreign relations even in peace, made it inevitable 
that this far-seeing, compact, experienced body should assume 
authority which in theory belonged to the clumsy, inexperienced 
Assembly. ^^ Rome,''^ says Ihne, ^^ became a complete aristocracy 
with democratic forms; or, as Mommsen puts it, "While the 
burgesses [citizens] acquired the semblance, the Senate ac- 
quired the substance, of power." 

Each magistrate expected, after his brief term of office, 

1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 14. gives Livy 's aristocratic account of this^contest. 



§ 402] GOVERNMENT 351 

to become permanently a member of the Senate. Therefore 
he guarded its dignity and dreaded its anger. Thus, as 
the magistrate controlled the Assemblies, so the Senate con- 
trolled the magistrate. No consul would think of bringing 
a law before the people without the previous approval of the 
Senate (so that indirectly that body, rather than the Assembly, 
had become the real legislature.) As a last resort, it could 
usually count upon one or more of the ten tribunes, and could 
block any action it disliked by his veto. No ojBQcer would draw 
money from the treasury without the Senate's consent. It 
declared and managed wars. It received ambassadors and made 
alliances. And certainly, for over a hundred years, by its 
sagacity and energy, this "assembly of kings "^ justified its 
usurpation, earning Mommsen's epithet, — "the foremost 
political corporation of all time." 

"^ 401. Democratic Theory and Aristocratic Practice. — In theory the 
Democracy was supreme through its popular Assemblies. In practice 
the Aristocrats controlled the government through their monopoly of the 
curule offices and of the all-directing Senate. 

This condition began before the Pyrrhic War, or about 300 B.C., and 
it lasted nearly three hundred years. During the first part of this time 
(until about 200 B.C.) the rule of the nobles, though marked sometimes 
by a narrow class spirit, was patriotic, vigorous, and beneficent.^ After the 
year 200, it became both weak and selfish. Then power slipped from the inca- 
pable Aristocracy into the hands of military chiefs, — the forerunners of the 
Empire (§§ 52off.). 

"^ 402. Excursus : a Democratic Aristocrat. — The greatest 
name in this period of Roman history is that of Appius Clau- 
dius, the censor of the years 312-307. The Claudian gens 
were of the proudest patrician rank, but, like the Valerii 
(§ 362), they too " loved the people well." It was an earlier 
Appius Claudius who carried through the reforms of the Decem- 
virs (§ 362). This later Appius, also, was reviled by Livy, 



1 This was the description of the Senate which an ambassador from Pyrrhus 
382) carried back to his master. 2 gee Davis' Readings^ II, No. 18. 



352 THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 200 B.C. [§402 

who wrote for the aristocrats ; but, even in the story of his 
foes, he stands out as a great, progressive statesman. As cen- 
sor, he built the first Roman aqueduct, to bring pure water to 
Rome from the mountains twelve miles away, and he con- 
structed the Appian Way (§ 395), the first of the famous Ro- 
man roads. In order to carry through these important public 
works, he kept his office during the whole five years, until the 
next appointment,^ greatly to the wrath of the aristocracy. 

More important still were the social and political reforms of 
Appius. He filled the vacancies in the Senate with plebeians 
(the old distinction had not then died out), and even with the 
sons of freedmen ; and he gave the landless citizens of Rome 
political power by enrolling them in the " tribes" (§ 399). 
No doubt, he aided the valuable law-reforms of the aedile Fla- 
vins (§ 399, note), who, Livy tells us, owed his election to the 
strength Appius had given to the democratic faction. 

At some time after the expiration of his censorship Appius 
became blind. His aristocratic foes called this a punishment 
from the gods, in return for his attacks upon the " constitution 
of the fathers." But the blind old man, years after his cen- 
sorship, could still dominate the policy of Rome upon occasion. 
It was he who checked the Senate when it was about to make 
peace with Pyrrhus after the early Roman defeats, first enun- 
ciating clearly the Roman claim to supremacy in all Italy. 
Appius also was a lover of learning. He made a collection of 
legal decisions ; and his written speeches and wise maxims were 
much quoted in later Rome. 



EoR Further Reading on the Republican constitution : Specially rec- 
ommended: Davis' Headings, II, No. 17 (the account of Polybius, 
a scholarly Greek historian who wrote about 150 b.c.) ; and Pelham's 
Outlines, 159-167 (Senate), 167-172 (curule olficers). 

1 Censors were appointed each five years. Customarily, they performed 
their duties, and laid down their office, by the close of the first eighteen 
months. But there was no way to compel one to shorten his term in this way. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE ARMY 

403. The Flexible Legion. — The instrument with which the 
Etonian state conquered the world can best be surveyed at this 
point, although the changes noted in § 406 took place some- 
what later. 

The Roman army under the kings was similar to the old 
Dorian organization. In Italy, as in Greece, the " knights " of 
very early times had given way, before history fairly begins, 
to a dense hoplite array, usually eight deep. In Greece the 
next step was to deepen and close the ranks still further 
into the massive Theban and Macedonian phalanx. In Italy, 
instead, they were broken up into three successive lines, and 
each line was divided further into small companies. The com- 
panies were usually six 

men deep with twenty in "QJ "" 

each rank ; and between Iron Head of a Javelin. 

each two companies there (Such a head was about three feet long, and 

was a space equal to the was fitted into a wooden shaft of about 

front of a companv. Thus, f^ ^^^^ ^'J'^' ^^?^ ^^^^^f 7/ *^! *^^ 
^ " ' front rows of companies earned two jave- 

if one line fell back, the jing.) 

companies of the line be- 
hind could advance through the intervals. Within a company, 
too, each soldier had about twice the space permitted in the 
phalanx. The front rank of companies contained the raw re- 
cruits. Experienced soldiers made up the second line of com- 
panies. The third line contained only veterans, and was 
usually held in reserve, to deliver a decisive blow at a critical 
moment in the battle.^ 

1 The legion usually had ten " companies " in each of its three lines. Can 
the student draw a diagram of a legion in battle array, from the description 
above ? 

353 




THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 200 B.C. [§ 404 

'he arms of legion and phalanx differed also. The phalanx 
depended upon long spears. While it remained unbroken and 
could present its front, it was invulnerable ; but if disordered 
by uneven ground, or if taken in flank, it was doomed. The 
legion used the hurling javelin to disorder the enemy's ranks 
before immediate contact (as moderns have used musketry), 
and the famous Roman short sword for close combat (as mod- 
erns, till recently, have used the bayonet). Flexibility, indi- 
viduality, and constancy took the place of the collective lance 
thrust of the unwieldy phalanx.^ For defensive armor, a 
legionary wore (1) a bronze helmet; (2) a corselet, of interwoven 
leather straps, about the body, holding a plate of iron ; (3) a 
short leather skirt, strengthened with metal plates, hanging 
lower than the corselet ; (4) metal greaves on the legs ; and 
(5), on the left arm, an oblong shield with a convex surface, 
to make the weapons of the enemy glance off. 

The legion numbered about five thousand, and was made up 
of Roman citizens. Each legion was accompanied by about 
five thousand men from the Allies. These auxiliaries served 
on the wings of the legion as light-armed troops, and they 
furnished also whatever cavalry the army had. The strength 
of the Roman army, however, lay in the infantry and especially 
in the legions. 

404. The Roman camp was characteristic of a people whose 
colonies were garrisons. Where the army encamped — even if 
for only a single night — there grew up in an hour a fortified 
city, with earth walls and regular streets.^ This system- 
allowed the Romans often " to conquer by sitting still," declin- 
ing or giving battle at their own option ; while, too, when they 

1 The reserve line of the legion carried spears instead of javelins. The two 
great fighting instruments, legion and phalanx, were not to come into final 
conflict until after 200 B.C. Meantime they remained supreme in the East 
and West respectively. 

2 The importance of these camps, as the sites and foundation plans of cities 
over Europe, is shown by the frequency of the Roman word castra (camp) in 
English place-names, as in Chester^ Rochester, Winchester, Dorchester Mart' 
Chester, etc. 



§406] 



THE ROMAN ARMY 



355 



did fight, they did so " under the walls of their city," with a 
fortified and guarded refuge in their rear. 

405. Discipline.^ — The terrible discipline of early times re- 
mained. Without trial, the general could scourge or behead 



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Porta Praetoria 

The Roman Camp. 

any man serving in his camp. Still more fearful was the 
practice of decimating a faulty corps (putting to death every 
tenth man). 

406. Changes with Extension of Service : a Professional Armyj 
Proconsuls. — Rome now began a long series of great wars, 

1 An interesting extract from Polybius is given in Munro's Source Booh 
28,29. 



356 THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 200 B.C. [§406 

waged, for the most part, outside Italy. Great changes re- 
sulted in the army. Service with the legions long remained 
the highest duty of the citizen, and each man between the ages 
of seventeen and forty-six was liable to active duty. But, 
alongside this citizen army, there was to grow up a professional 
army. New citizen legions were raised each year for the sum- 
mer campaigns, as before, though more and more, even in these 
legions, the officers were veterans and were becoming a pro- 
fessional class ; but the legions sent to Sicily, Spain, or Africa 
were kept under arms sometimes for many years. ^ 

Such facts led to another change, icith important political 
consequences. To call home a consul each year from an un- 
finished campaign in these distant wars became intolerably 
wasteful. The remedy was found in prolonging the command- 
er's term, under the title oi proconsul. This office was destined 
to become the strongest force in the Republic and a chief step 
toward the coming Empire. 

1 In particular, the long struggle in Spain during the War with Hannibal 
and after it (§§ 447, 456) operated in this way. Twenty thousand soldiers 
were required for that province each year for half a century. There soon 
grew up a practice of settling such veterans, upon the expiration of their serv- 
ice, in military colonies in the provinces where they had served — the lands 
thus given them being regarded as a kind of service pension. In this way 
communities of Roman citizens were to be spread over the provinces, to Ital- 
ianize the world, as a like system of colonization had already Romanized 
Italy. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

ROMAN SOCIETY, 367-200 B.C. 

407. The Noblest Period. — From 367 to about 200 b.c. is 
the period of greatest Roman vigor. Tlie old class distinctions 
(between patrician and plebeian) had died out. A new aris- 
tocracy of office was growing up, but it was still in its best age, 
its "age of service." There was soon to come a new class 
struggle between rich and poor — but this had not yet begun. 

It was the Roman people of these two splendid centuries who 
made Rome the mistress first of Italy and then of the world. 
That conquest was not completed in this period; but it was 
really decided by the events of these years. The final steps 
were carried out by an inferior Rome ; for the conquests — be- 
yond Italy — were no sooner started than they began to work 
woeful changes in the conquering people. We stop, therefore, 
at this point to survey Roman society — as we have just done 
with the Roman government — at its noblest stage. 

408. Industries. — The Roman citizens, in the main, were 
still yeomen farmers, who worked hard and lived plainly. 
Each such farmer tilled his few acres with his own hands and 
the help of his own sons. Each eighth day, he came to the 
city with a load of produce for the " market.'^ The early 
practice of raising cattle had given way largely to the culti- 
vation of wheat, barley, garden vegetables, and fruit; but 
horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs still counted in the farm produce. 
Many modern garden vegetables were not yet known, and the 
Roman variety was certainly no larger than the Egyptian of 
a much earlier time (§ 17) ; but we read frequently of beans, 
onions, turnips, cabbages, and of such fruits as figs, olives, 
apples, plums, and pears. 

357 



358 THE ROMAN REPUBLIC TO 200 B.C. [§409 

In the city itself (as no doubt in all Italian towns), the 
craftsmen were organized in ''unions" (gilds). These gilds 
were not for the purpose of raising wages, as with us, nor 
mainly for improving the character of the work, as in later 
centuries in Europe. They were associations for friendly in- 
tercourse, and, to some extent, for mutual helpfulness among 
the members in times of misfortune. They illustrate the ex- 
traordinary Roman capacity for organization and group action, 
— in marked contrast to the individuality of Greek life. Le- 
gend tells us that King Numa organized the gilds of carpenters, 
shoemakers, dyers, laundrymen, potters, coppersmiths, and 
flute players. Certainly these gilds were very ancient at Rome. 
Weavers and bakers were to appear a little later; but during 
this period these industries were carried on in each household. 
The oldest gild known to us — that of the flute players, who 
furnished music for the sacred festivals — is the only one, so 
far as we know, which ever entered upon a strike for greater 
privileges. (See Davis' Readings, II, No. 14.) 

Commerce (trade to other lands) paid huge profits to the suc- 
cessful merchants (those who did not too often lose vessels by 
shipwreck or pirates). The few rich Romans still disdained 
the business for themselves, but they had begun to use their 
capital in it through their slaves or former slaves (freedmen). 

409. Wealth. — There were few citizens of great wealth or in 
extreme poverty. The rapid gains of territory, after 367, made 
it possible to relieve the city poor by grants of land or by send- 
ing them out in colonies. Still, the attitude of the Roman 
landed citizen toward the merchant, the small shopkeeper, and 
the artisan was not unlike that of the Athenian gentleman 
(§ 237). But the Roman " gentleman " of this age was not yet 
a mere owner of farms, like the Athenian of Pericles' time : he 
was himself the farmer. 

The legend of the patrician Cincinnat^is^ of the fifth century 
(called from the plow on his three-acre farm to become dicta- 

1 § 350, note. 



§411] SOCIETY, INDUSTRIES, MORALS 359 

tor and save Rome from the Aequians, and returning to the 
plow again, all in sixteen days) is more than matched by the 
sober history of Manias Curio, the conqueror of the Samnites 
and of Pyrrhus. 

This great Roman was a Sabine peasant and a proud aristo- 
crat. Plutarch tells us that, though he had " triumphed " ^ 
thrice, he continued to live in a cottage on a little three-acre 
plot which he tilled with his own hands. Here the Samnite 
ambassadors found him dressing turnips in the chimney corner, 
when they came to offer him a large present of gold. Curio 
refused the gift : " A man," said he, '^ who can be content with 
this supper hath no need of gold ; and I count it glory, not to 
possess wealth, but to rule those who do." 

410. Money. — The oldest Roman word for money (pecunia) 
came from the word for herd (pecus). This points to a time 
when payments were made chiefly in cattle, as with many semi- 
barbaric tribes in modern times. But before definite Roman 
history begins, a copper coinage had been introduced. Even 
before the coinage, the Romans had " estimated " in copper (aes), 
counting by the pound weight. Silver was not used either for 
money or for household purposes until after the union of Italy ; 
and even at a later date a senator wsls struck from the list by a 
reforming censor, because he owned ten pounds of silver plate. 

411. Home and Manner of Life. — The family and religion as yet 
showed little change from the early state described in §§ 340, 
341. The house had added rooms on sides and rear, and open- 
ings for windows ; but it was still exceedingly simple, like the 
life wi'thin. A plain table, wooden couches, and a few stools, 
and simple cooking utensils comprised the furniture. Artificial 
warmth and light were secured by " braziers " and lamps, like 
those of the Greeks (§ 233), The Roman took his chief meal 
at midday (not in the evening, as the Creeks did). In early 
times, the main food was a "porridge" of ground meal boiled 
in water. Pork, especially in the form of sausage, was the 

1 Special report :. a Roman " triumph." See Munro's Source Book, 38-40, 



A<;" 

/Se^X THE ROMAN REPUBLIC TO 200 B.C. [§412 

favorite meat. Bread, from ground wheat or barley, was baked 
in flat, round cakes. Water or milk was the common drink, 
but wine mixed with water was coming into general use, after 
the fashion of the Greeks. The Romans who conquered 
Pyrrhus and Hannibal were a frugal, temperate people. 

412. Dress was as simple as the fooa. The Roman kept the 
primitive loin cloth of linen. Over this he drew a short-sleeved 
woolen shirt (tunic) falling to the knees. This made the com- 
mon dress of the house, workshop, and field. In public the 
Roman wore an outer garment — a white woolen blanket, 
thrown about him in graceful folds. This was the famous 
Roman toga. 'For defense against rain or cold, sometimes a 
cloak also was worn. Women wore a long and a short tunic, 
and for the street, a blanket-wrap. Foot-gear was like that of 
the Greeks. Stockings and hats were alike unknown. Women 
were fond of jewelry, — rings, bracelets, pins, and chains ; and 
each man wore a seal-ring. Members of the senatorial fam- 
ilies wore also broad gold rings. 

413. Education was elementary. Until seven, the children 
were in the mother's care. After that age, boys went to a pri- 
vate school, taught by some Greek slave or freedman. As in 
Greece, the pupil was attended by a "pedagogue.^' He learned 
merely to read, write, and, in a limited degree, to compute 
with Roman numerals. The only textbook was the Twelve 
Tables, which were learned by heart. Physical training was 
found in athletic games in the Campus Martins (p. 311), where 
the young Romans contended in running, wrestling, and in the 
use of the spear, sword, and javelin. The Roman took his ex- 
ercise, not in regular gymnasium training, like the Greeks or 
the modern German, but more like the English and Americans. 
For amusements, there were chariot races and the theater; but 
the racers and actors were slaves or freedmen, not Romans. 
The Roman and the Greek views of the stage and of athletic 
contests were at opposite poles. 

414. Science and Learning. — Literature, under Greek influence, 
was just beginning at the close of the period. So, too, with 



§415] SOCIET-i, INDUSTRIES, MORALS 361 

art. Roads, bridges, and aqueducts were built in the last half 
of the period on a magnificent scale ; and the use of the round 
arch was so developed that we often speak of that architectural 
feature as " the Roman arch." 

415. Roman morals and ideals are revealed in much of the 
preceding story. The finest thing in Roman character was 
the spirit of self-immolation for E-ome, — the willingness to 




A Boxing Match. 

sink personal or party advantage for the public weal. Next to 
this, and allied to it, is the capacity for organization, for work- 
ing together for a common end. Roman history is not the 
history of a few brilliant leaders: it is the story of a people. 

Undue praise has been given sometimes to the stern excellence 
of early Rome. It is cheap moralizing to point out the barbaric 
virtues of a rude society in comparison with the luxury of 
refined times, and omit more important considerations. The 
real picture is by no means without shadows. The Roman was 
abstemious, haughty, obedient to law, self-controlled. His 
ideal was a man of iron will and stern discipline, devoted to 
Rome, contemptuous of luxury, of suffering, and even of human 
sympathy if it conflicted with his duty to the state. His model 



362 THE ROMAN REPUBLIC TO 200 B.C. [§416 

was still the first consul, Brutus, who in legend sent his guilty 
sons to the block unmoved ; ^ and the great Latin war (338 b.c.) 
furnished a historical consul, Manlius, who, as JjVfj tells us, 
gloomily executed his gallant son for a glorious act of insubor- 
dination.2 

With such men for her heroes, it is not strange that Rome 
made some peculiar boasts. For instance, the noble Samnite, 
Pontius, the victor of Caudine Forks, had magnanimously 
spared the Roman army (§ 380) ; but when he became prisoner 
in turn, Rome saw only cause for pride in basely dragging him 
through the city in a triumph, and then starving him to death 
in a dungeon. The Romans were coarse, cruel, and rapacious, 
as well as lofty-minded, brave, and obedient. 

416. The Beginning of Greek Influence. — In manners and in 
morals Rome was a fair type of the ''Italians proper. The 
Etruscans and Greeks were softer and more luxurious, with 
more abject poverty among the masses. 

After the war with Pyrrhus, the connection with Magna 
Graecia introduced Greek culture into R^man society, and 
wealth and luxury began slowly to appear. At first the Romans 
as a whole did not show to advantage under the change. Too 
often it seemed only to veneer their native coarseness and bru- 
tality. At the same time, with the better minds, it did soften 
and refine character into a more lovable type than Italy had 
so far seen : and, from this time, Greek art and thought more 
and more worked upon Roman society. 

This change certainly is not to be mourned. It was not this that 
mined Rome. It was the manifold results of world-empire, soon to fol- 
low. The old Roman training had made citizens fit to grapple with 
the problems of uniting Italy into one nation, and of ruling and protecting 
that home land. But Roman training and character broke down utterly 
before the vastly more complex problems and temptations of foreign 
conquests. 

i § 350, close. 2 Special report. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE WINNING OF THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 

THE RIVALS — ITALY AND CAHTHAGE 

417. Italy in 264 B.C. was one of five great Mediterranean 
states. When she completed the union of Italy (§ 381), Alex- 
ander the Great had been dead nearly fifty years. The long 
Wars of the Succession had closed, and the dominion of the 
eastern Mediterranean world was divided between the three 
great Greek kingdoms, Syria, Egypt, and Macedonia, with their 
numerous satellites (§§ 289, 292 ff.). In the western Mediterra- 
nean Carthage held undisputed sway. Now, between the three 
powers of the East and the single mistress of the West stood 
forth a new state, Roman Italy, destined to absorb them all. 

Tlie struggle for supremacy between these jive Mediterranean 
powers filled the next hundred and tvjenty years. The first half 
of the period went to Momari conquests in the West at the expense 
of Carthage. 

418. Carthage the Natural Rival of Rome in the West. — Car- 
thage and Rome had been allied, just before, against Pyrrhus, 
their common enemy. But that gallant adventurer had seen 
that they were natural rivals ; and, as he abandoned the West, 
he exclaimed longingly, " How fair a battlefield we are leaving 
for the Romans and Carthaginians ! " In less than ten years 
the hundred-year conflict began. 

Carthage was an ancient Phoenician colony, on the finest har- 
bor in North Africa. Her government, in form, was a republic, 
somewhat like Rome, but in reality it was a narrow oligarchy 
controlled by a few wealthy families. She was now at the 
height of her power. Polybius (§ 462) called her the richest city 
in the world. To her old naval supremacy she had added a vast 

363 



364 



ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY 



[§419 



land empire, including North Africa,^ Sardinia, Corsica, half 
of Sicily, and the coasts of Spain. The western Mediterranean 
she regarded as a Punic ^ lake : foreign sailors caught tres- 
passing there were cast into the sea. But the Greeks of South 
Italy had traded in those waters for five hundred years ; and 
Rome, now mistress and protector of those cities, was bound 




soon to defend their trading rights against this "closed door" 
of Carthaginian policy. 

419. Carthaginian Character. — Her Roman foes represented 
Carthage as wanting in honesty ; and with biting irony they 
invented the term, " Punic faith," as a synonym for treachery. 
Carthage herself is " a dumb actor on the stage of history.'* 
She once had poetry, oratory, and philosophy, but none of it 
escaped Roman hate, to tell us how Carthaginians thought and 
felt. Rome wrote the history; but, even from the Roman 
story, the charge of faithlessness and greed is most apparent 
against Rome. 

1 In Africa alone Carthage ruled three hundred cities, and her territory 
merged into the desert where tributary nomads roamed. 

2 " Punic " is another form for " Phoenician," and is used as a shorter ad* 
jective for " Carthaginian." 



§ 422] WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 365 

However, the civilization of Carthage was of an Oriental 
type (§ 80). Her religion was the cruel and licentious wor- 
ship of the Phoenician Baal and Astarte. Her armies were a 
motley mass of mercenaries. And though, like the mother 
Phoenician states, she scattered wide the seeds of a material 
culture, like them, also, she showed no power of assimilating 
inferior nations. The conquests of Eome were to be Poman- 
ized; hut six centuries of Punic rule had left the Berber tribes 
of Africa (§ 10) wholly outside Carthaginian society. 

420. The contrast between the political systems of the two 
rivals is equally striking. Even her nearest and best subjects 
Carthage kept in virtual slavery. Says Mommsen {History of 
Rome, II, 155) : — 

" Carthage dispatched her overseers everywhere, and loaded even the 
old Phoenician cities with a heavy tribute, while her subject tribes were 
practically treated as state slaves. In this way there was not in the 
compass of the Carthagino-African state a single community, with the ex- 
ception of Utica, that would not have been politically and materially bene- 
fited by the fall of Carthage ; in the Romano-Italic, there was not one 
that had not much more to lose than to gain in rebelling against a gov- 
ernment which was careful to avoid injuring material interests, and which 
never, at least by extreme measures, challenged political opposition." 

421. The Issue at Stake. — Thus, whatever our sympathy 
for Carthage and her hero leaders, we must see that the victory 
of Rome was necessary for the welfare of the human race. 
The struggle was the conjiict of Greece and Persia repeated by 
more stalwart actors on a western stage. 

The conflict consists of a series of three wars. The second is the 
decisive struggle, to which, it is often said, the first and third stand 
merely as prologue and epilogue. 

THE FIRST PUNIC WAR (THE WAR FOR SICILY) 

422. The occasion for the First Punic War was found in Sicily. 
When Rome conquered South Italy, she came necessarily into 
relations with the Greeks in that island. Sicily is really a con- 



366 



ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§422 



tinuation of the Italian peninsula. It reaches to within ninetjr 
miles of the African coast. A sunken ridge on the bed of the 
sea shows that it once joined the two continents, and it still 
forms a stepping-stone between them. For this middle land, 
European and African struggled for centuries. Eor two hun- 
dred years now it had been divided, Syracuse holding the 
eastern half, Carthage the western. 

While Rome was still busy with the Pyrrhic war, an event 
happened which renewed the conflict for Sicily and was finally 
to draw Rome in as a chief actor. A band of Campanian mer- 





COIN OF HiERO II OF SYRACUSE. 

cenaries, on their way home from service under the tyrant of 
Syracuse, seized the city of Messana, murdering all the men 
and taking possession of their wives and goods. The robbers 
called themselves Mamertines (" Sons of Mars "), and for several 
years, from their walled stronghold, they ravaged and plun- 
dered the northeast corner of Sicily. Now, in 265, they were 
hard pressed by Hiero II, the ruler of Syracuse, and one fac- 
tion called in Carthage while another party appealed to Rome 
for protection. 

Both Syracuse and Carthage were allies of Rome, and it was 
not easy for that state to find excuse for defending the robbers. 
The desire to check Carthage and to extend Roman power, how- 
ever, outweighed all caution as well as all moral considera- 
tions. And, indeed, there was real danger in Carthage estab- 
lishing herself in Messana, close to the Italian coast. Even so. 



§425] WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 367 

the Senate could come to no decision ; but the people, to whom 
it referred the question, voted promptly to send troops to 
Sicily; a7idj in 264, Roman legions for the first time crossed the 
seas. The war with Carthage that followed is known as the 
First Punic War. 

423. Strength of the Parties. — Carthage was mistress of an 
empire huge but scattered and heterogeneous. Eome was the 
head of a small but compact nationality. Each state con- 
tained, or ruled over, about 5,000,000 people. The strength of 
Carthage lay in her wealth and in her navy. Her weak points 
were : the jealousy felt by the ruling families at home toward 
their own successful generals; the difficulty of dealing with 
her mercenaries ; the danger of revolt among her Libyan sub- 
jects ; and the fact that an invading army, after one victory, would 
find no resistance outside her walls, since her Jealousy had leveled 
the defenses of her tributary towns in Africa. 

Rome was strong in the patriotism and vigor of her people, 
in the discipline of her legions, and in the fidelity of her allies. 
Her weakness lay in the total lack of a navy, and in the want 
of a better military system than the one of annually changing 
officers and short-term soldiers. (The changes in the army re- 
ferred to in § 406 above had not yet taken place. They were 
to result from this war.) 

424. Importance of Sea Power. — The war lasted twenty-three 
years, and is ranked by Polybius (a Greek historian of the next 
century) above all previous wars for severity. Few confticts 
illustrate better the value of naval superiority. At first the 
Carthaginians were undisputed masters of the sea. They there- 
fore reinforced their troops in Sicily at pleasure, and ravaged 
the coasts of Italy to the utter ruin of seaboard prosperity. 
Indeed, for a time they made good their warning to the Roman 
Senate before the war began, — that against their will no Ro- 
man could wash his hands in the sea. 

425. Rome becomes a Sea Power. — But the Romans, with 
sagacity and boldness, built their first war fleet and soon met 
the ancient Queen of the Seas on her own element' Winning 



368 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§426 

command there temporarily/ in 256, they invaded Africa itself. 
The consul Eegulus won brilliant successes there, and even laid 
siege to Carthage. But, as winter came on, the short-term 
Roman armies were mostly recalled, according to custom, and 
the weak remnant was soon killed or captured. 

426. Legend of Regulus. — Five years later, the weary Car 
thaginians sent the captive Regulus home with offers of peace 
and exchange of prisoners, binding him by oath to return to 
Carthage if Rome rejected the terms. Later Roman legend 
tells proudly how Regulus, arrived at Rome, advised the Sen- 
ate not to make peace or ransom captives who had disgraced 
themselves by surrender, and how then, despite all entreaties, 
he steadfastly left Rome, holding his eyes on the ground to 
avoid sight of wife and child, to return to Carthage and to a 
cruel death by torture. (See Davis' Headings, II, No. 20.) 
The story at least illustrates Roman ideals of patriotic self- 
devotion and of faithfulness to the plighted word. 

427. The Carthaginian hero of the war is strictly historical, 
In 247, the general Hamilcar appeared in Sicily. He estab 
lished himself with a small force on the summit of a rugged 
mountain, and from this citadel with a mere handful of troops, 
he held large Roman armies in check for six years, by his 
remarkable skill in war. His troops grew their own food and 
forage on the barren mountain slopes ; and from time to time 
Hamilcar swooped down, eagle-like, to strike telling blows, — 
earning from friend and foe the surname Barca (the Lightning). 



1 Special report ; the new naval tactics of the Romans (Mommsen, II, 173- 
176). Despite real genius in the device by which Rome, to a great degree, 
changed a naval into a land battle, her immediate victory at sea over the veteran 
navy of Carthage is explicable chiefly on the supposition that the " Roman " 
navy was furnished by the " allies " in Magna Graecia. The story of Polybius, 
that Rome built her fleet in two months on the model of a stranded Cartha« 
ginian vessel, and meantime trained her sailors to row sitting on the sand (see 
Munro, 79-80), must' be in the main a quaint invention. See How and Leigh, 
152. Mommsen (II, 43-46) outlines the history of the Roman navy for sixty 
years before the war, and (II, 172-176) gives a possible meaning to the old 
accoimt by Polybius. 



§431] WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 369 

428- Rome's Patriotism and Enterprise. — Eome's first at* 
tempts upon the sea had been surprisingly successful, but soon 
terrible reverses befell her there. In quick succession she 
lost four great fleets with large armies on board, mainly through 
lack of seamanship in her commanders. One sixth of her cit- 
izens had perished ; the treasury was empty ; and, in despair, 
the Senate was about to abandon the effort to secure the sea. 
In this crisis Kome was saved by the public spirit of private cit- 
izens. Lavish loans built and fitted out two hundred vessels, and 
this fleet won an overwhelming victory, which closed the war. 

These loans were made by "companies " of merchants and capitalists 
which had recently begun to appear in Rome. The loans were not 
secured. The Republic merely promised to repay them when it might 
be able. If Rome had lost once more, they never would have been re- 
paid. The whole proceeding is very like the way in which, in our Civil 
War, after Bull Run, our Northern banking syndicates loaned vast sums 
to the government, without security, to save the Union. 

429. Peace : Sicily becomes Roman. — Carthage had lost 
command of the sea and could no longer reinforce her armies 
in Sicily. Moreover, she was weary of the war and of the 
losses it brought to her commerce ; and, in 241, she sued for 
peace. To obtain it, she withdrew from Sicily and paid a 
heavy war indemnity. Hiero, who after the first years of the 
war had become a faithful ally of Eome, remained master of 
Syracuse. The rest of /Sicily passed under the rule of Borne. 

FROM THE FIRST TO THE SECOND PUNIC WAR, 241-218 B.C. 

430. Use of the Interval. — Sagacious Komans looked for- 
ward to another struggle with Carthage. That conflict, how- 
ever, did not come for twenty-three years. Meantime, Borne 
pushed wider the borders of Italy (§§ 431^33), and organized 
her new conquests upon the "provincial'^ plan (§ 435). 

431. Sardinia and Corsica. — When the mercenaries of Car- 
thage were withdrawn from Sicily to Africa, they were left 
unpaid and they soon broke into revolt. The Libyan tribes 
joined the rising, and a ferocious struggle followed between 




ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY 15 432 

Carthage and the rebels. The war is known as the War of the 
Mercenaries, and sometimes as the Truceless War. At last 
Hamilcar Barca stamped out the revolt in Africa. But mean- 
time the movement had spread to Sardinia and Corsica; and, in 
238, the rebels offered these islands to Rome. The temptation 
was too much for Roman honor. The offer was shamelessly 
accepted, and a protest from distracted Carthage was met by a 
stern threat of war. The islands became Roman possessions. 
The Tyrrhenian Sea had become a Roman lake. 

432. The Adriatic a Roman Sea. — This period marks also the 
first Roman enterprise to the east of Italy. Illyria had risen 
into a considerable state, in friendly relations with Macedonia. 
The Illyrian coasts were the homes of countless pirates, who 
swarmed forth in great fleets to harry the commerce of the 
adjoining waters. Finally these pirates even captured Corcyra. 
Other Greek towns complained loudly to Rome. Rome sent a 
haughty embassy to demand order from the Illyrian queen. 
The embassy was assaulted murderously, and Rome declared 
war. In a brief campaign (229 b.c.) she swept the pirates 
from the Adriatic and forced Illyria to sue for peace. The 
Adriatic had become a Roman waterway. At this time, Rome 
kept 710 territory on the eastern coast ; but the Greek cities had 
learned to look to her for protection, and accordingly Mace- 
donia began to regard her with a jealous eye. 

433. Cisalpine Gaul. — A few years later came a great addi- 
tion of territory on the north. Rome had begun to plant 
colonies on the border of Cisalpine Gaul. Naturally the Gauls 
were alarmed and angered, and, in 225, for the last time they 
threatened Italy. They penetrated to within three days' march 
of Rome ; but Italian patriotism rallied around the endangered 
capital, and the barbarians were crushed. 

Then Rome resolutely took the offensive, and, by 222, Cisal- 
pine Gaul had become a Roman possession, garrisoned by 
numerous colonies and traversed by a great military road. At 
last Home had pushed her northern boundary from the low 
Apennines to the great crescent wall of the Alps. 



§435] WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 371 

434. Summary of Roman Expansion to 222 B.C. — The steps of 
Roman expansion from 367 to 222 may be summarized in a few words. 
The period 367-266 consolidated Apennine Italy. In the next fifty years 
this narrow "Italy" had been rounded out to its true borders by three 
great steps : (i) The First Punic War, filling half the period, added 
Sicily. (2) The other great islands bounding Italian waters on the 
west were seized soon after, treacherously, from Carthage in the hour of 
her death struggle with her revolted troops. (3) Then, having provoked 
the Gauls to war, Rome became mistress of the valley of the Po. Mean- 
time Roman authority had been successfully asserted, also, in the sea 
bordering Italy on the east. 

435. Organization of the Conquests outside of Italy. — On the 
whole, Eome had been generous and wise in her treatment of 
united Italy ; hut all her conquests since the war with Pyrrhus 
(Cisalpine Gaul as truly as the islands) were looked upon as 
outside of Italy (§ 255). The distance of the new possessions 
from Rome, the fact that the islands could not be reached by 
" roads," and the character of Cisalpine Gaul seemed to make 
impossible for these districts the kind of government given to 
the "allies" and municipia in Italy proper. Unfortunately, 
Rome was unable to invent a new form of government, and 
so she fell back upon the idea of prefectures (§ 390). The 
new acquisitions became strictly subject possessions of 
Rome, and they were ruled much as the prefectures were in 
Italy. 

Sicily (241 b.c.) was managed temporarily by a Roman 
praetor; but in 227, when some semblance of order had been 
introduced into Sardinia and Corsica, the Senate adopted a per- 
manent plan of government for all these islands. Two addi- 
tional praetors, it was decided, should be elected each year, — 
one to rule Sicily, the other for the two other islands. The tjvo 
governments received the name of provinces. 

This was the beginning of the provincial system that was to spread 
finally far beyond these " suburbs of Italy." Soon afterward 
Cisalpine Gaul was organized in a like manner, though it was 
not given the title of a province until much later. The system 
will be described in §§ 498-503. 



372 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§436 

THE SECOND PUNIC WAR (SOMETIMES STYLED "THE 
WAR FOR SPAIN"), 218-202 B.C. 

436- Occasion. — Carthage was not ready to give up control of 
the Western Mediterranean without another struggle. Kome's 
policy of " blunder and plunder " in seizing Sardinia gave her ex- 
cuse enough to renew the contest if she could find leaders and 
resources. These were both furnished by the Barca family. 

From Rome's high-handed treachery in Sardinia, Hamilcar 
Barca imbibed a deathless hatred for that state; and immedi- 
ately after putting down the War of the Mercenaries he be- 
gan to prepare for another conflict. To offset the loss of the 
great Mediterranean islands, he sought to extend Carthaginian 
dominion over Spain. The mines of that country, he saw, 
would furnish the needful wealth, and its hardy tribes, when 
disciplined, would make an infantry which might meet even 
the legions of Rome, 

437. Hannibal. — When Hamilcar was about to cross to Spaiuj 
in 236, he swore his son Hannibal at the altar to eternal hos- 
tility to Rome. Hannibal was then a boy of nine years. 
He followed Hamilcar to the wars, and, as a youth, became a 
dashing cavalry officer and the idol of the soldiery. He used 
his camp leisure to store his mind with all the culture of Greece. 
At twenty-six he succeeded to the command in Spain. In rare 
degree he possessed the ability to secure the devotion of fickle, 
mercenary troops. He was a statesman of a high order, and 
possibly the greatest captain in history. The Second Punic 
War takes its keenest interest from his dazzling career. Even 
the Romans called that struggle the " War with Hannibal." 

No friendly pen has left us a record of Hannibal. Roman 
historians sought to stain his fame with envious slander. But, 
through it all, his character shines out chivalrous, noble, heroic. 
Says Colonel Dodge,^ " There is not in history a figure more noble 
in purity, more radiant in patriotism, more heroic in genius, 
more pathetic in its misfortunes.'' 

1 Author of various military biographies. 













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THE MEDITERRANEAN LANDS 

AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 

SECOND PUNIC WAR 

SCALE OF MILES 



50 100 

Roman Possessions and Allies 
Carthaginian •< " 
Macedonian << << 
Hannibal's Route — f- 




Free Greek States 
Syrian Possessions 
Egyptian <• 



5 Longitude West 



Longitude 



East 




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Greenwich 25 



§441] WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 373 

438. Hannibal at Saguntum; Rome declares War, 218 B.C 

— Hannibal continued the work of his great father in Spain. 
He made the southern half of that rich land a Carthaginian 
province and organized it thoroughly. Then he rapidly carried 
the Carthaginian frontier to the Ebro, collected a magnificent 
army of over a hundred thousand men, and besieged Saguntum, 
an ancient Greek colony near the east coast. Fearing Carthagin- 
ian advance, Saguntum had sought Roman alliance; and now, 
when Carthage refused to recall Hannibal, Rome, in alarm and 
anger, declared war (218 B.C.). 

439. Hannibal's Invasion of Italy. — The Second Punic War 
(218-202 B.C.) was somewhat shorter than the First, but it was 
an even more strenuous struggle. Rome had intended to 
take the offensive. Indeed, she dispatched one consul in a 
leisurely way to Spain, and started the other for Africa by way 
of Sicily. But Hannibal's audacious rapidity threw into con- 
fusion all his enemy's plans. In five months he had crossed 
the Pyrenees and the Rhone, fighting his way through the Gal- 
lic tribes; forced the unknown passes of the Alps, under con- 
ditions that made it a feat paralleled only by Alexander's 
passage of the Hindukush; and, leaving the bones of three 
fourths of his army between the Ebro and Po, startled Italy 
by appearing in Cisalpine Gaul, with twenty-six thousand 
"heroic shadows." 

440. His First Victories. — With these "emaciated scare- 
crows " the same fall Hannibal swiftly destroyed two hastily 
gathered Roman armies — at the Ticinus and at the Trebia. 
Then the recently pacified Gallic tribes rallied t.urbulently to 
swell his ranks. The following spring he crossed the Apen- 
nines, ambushed a Roman army of forty thousand men, blinded 
with morning fog, near Lake Trasimeiie, and annihilated it, and 
then carried fire and sword through Italy. 

441. Quintus Fabius Maximus was now named dictator, to 
save Rome. That wary old general adopted the wise policy 
of delay ("Fabian policy") to wear out Hannibal and gain 
breathing time for Rome. He would not give battle, but he 



374 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§442 

followed close at the Carthaginian's heels, from place to place. 
Even Hannibal could not catch Fabius unawares ; and he did 
not dare to attack the intrenched Roman camps. But Hannibal 
had to win victories to draw the Italian "Allies" from Rome, or 
he would have to JBiee from Italy. He ravaged savagely, as he 
marched, to provoke the Roman commander to battle, but in 
vain ; and his position grew critical. So far, not a city in 
Italy had opened its gates to him as a shelter. 

442. Cannae. — But in Rome many of the common people 
murmured impatiently, nicknaming Fabius Cunctator (the Lag- 
gard). Popular leaders, too, began to grumble that the Senate 
protracted the war in order to gain glory for the aristocratic 
generals ; and the following summer the new consuls were 
given ninety thousand men — by far the largest army Rome had 
ever put in the field, and several times Hannibal's army — 
with orders to crush the daring invader. The result was the 
battle of Cannae — "a carnival of cold steel, a butchery, not a 
battle." Hannibal lost six thousand men. Rome lost sixty 
thousand dead and twenty thousand prisoners. A consul, a 
fourth of the senators, nearly all the officers, and over a fifth 
of the fighting population of the city perished. Hannibal 
sent home a bushel of gold rings from the hands of fallen Ro- 
man nobles.^ 

443. Fidelity of the Latins and Italians to Rome. — The vic- 
tory, however, yielded little fruit. Hannibal's only real chance 
within Italy had been that brilliant victories might break up 
the Italian confederacy and bring over to his side the subjects 
of Rome. Accordingly, he freed his Italian prisoners without 
ransom, proclaiming that he warred only on Rome and that he 
came to liberate Italy. 

The mountain tribes of the south, eager for plunder, did join 
him, as did one great Italian city, Capua. Syracuse, too, re- 
nounced its Roman alliance and joined its ancient enemy Car- 
thage. And three years later, a cruel Roman blunder drove 

1 There is an excellent account of the battle in How and Leigh, 194-198. 



5 444] WINNING THE WEST, 264r-146 B.C. 375 

some of tlie Greek towns of south Italy into HannibaPs arms. 
But tlie other cities — colonies, Latins, or Allies — closed their 
gates against him as resolutely as Rome herself, — and so gave 
marvelous testimony to the excellence of Eoman rule and to 
the national spirit it had fostered. 

444. Rome's Grandeur in Disaster. — Rome's own greatness 
showed grandly in the hour of terror after Cannae, when any 
other people would have given up the conflict in despair. A 
plot among some faint-hearted nobles to abandon Italy was 
stifled in the camp; and the surviving consul, Varro, coura- 
geously set himself to reorganize the wreckage of his army. 

Varro had been elected, in a bitter partisan struggle, as the champion 
of the democratic party, against the unanimous opposition of the aris- 
tocracy. With undoubted merits in personal character, he had proved 
utterly lacking in military talent. Indeed, he had forced his wiser col- 
league to give battle, and his poor generalship was largely responsible 
for the disaster. He now returned to Rome, expecting to face stern 
judges. At Carthage, a general, so placed, would have been nailed to a 
cross or thrown under the feet of enraged elephants. Even in Athens, 
as Dr. Davis says, he would probably have had to drink the fatal cup of 
hemlock. At Rome, faction and criticism were silenced, and the aristo- 
cratic Senate showed its nobility by publicly giving thanks to the 
democratic and luckless general " because he had not despaired of the 
Republic." 

Even Cannae was not the end of disaster. Before the close 
of the year another army under a new consul was cut to 
pieces, and by losses elsewhere the Senate had fallen to less 
than half its numbers ; ^ but with stern temper and splendid 
tenacity Re me refused even to receive Hannibal's envoys or to 
consider his moderate proposals for peace. According to one 
story, Rome refused in this crisis to ransom prisoners. Much 
as she needed her soldiers back, she preferred, so the story 
goes, to teach her citizens that they ought at such a time to 
die for the Republic, rather than surrender. 

A third of the adult males of Italy had fallen in battle within 

1 The next year 177 new members were added, to bring the number up to 
the normal 300. 



376 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§443 

three years, or were in camp, so that all industry was demoral- 
ized. Still, taxes were doubled, and the rich gave cheerfully, 
even beyond these crushing demands. The days of mourning 
for the dead were shortened by a decree of the government. 
Rome refused to recall a man from Sicily or Spain. Instead 
she sent out new armies to those places, and by enrolling slaves, 
old men, boys, and the criminals from the prisons (arming 
them with the sacred trophies in the temples), she managed to 
put two hundred and fifty thousand troops into the field. 

Rome learned, too, from disaster. The legions and generals 
sent to Spain, Sicily, and other distant lands were no longer 
recalled at the end of the year. They were enlisted " for the 
war.'' Here lay the beginnings of important constitutional 
changes (§ 406). 

445. Lack of Concerted Action by Rome's Foes. — Hannibal 
was now in no peril in Italy. He could maintain himself there 
indefinitely, with his allies in the south of the peninsula. But 
he made no more headway. His possible chances for success 
lay in arousing a general Mediterranean war against Rome, or 
in receiving himself strong reinforcements from Carthage. 
Philip V of Macedonia did ally himself with Hannibal, but he 
acted timidly and too late. Carthage showed a strange apathy 
when victory was within her grasp. She made no real attempt 
even to regain her ancient command of the sea, and so could 
not send troops to Hannibal, or defend her ally, Syracuse, from 
Roman vengeance. 

446. The War in Sicily. — Meantime Rome guarded her 
coasts with efficient fleets and transported her armies at will. 
Especially did she strain every nerve for success abroad, where 
Hannibal's superb genius could not act against her. Syracuse 
had been besieged promptly by land and sea, and (212) after a 
three years' siege, it was taken by storm. This siege is mem- 
orable for the scientific inventions of Archimedes (§ 320), used 
in the defense.^ The philosopher himself was killed during the 

1 See Davis' Readings, II, No. 27, for the fullest account by an ancient 
authority. 



§449] WINNING THE WEST. 264^146 B.C. 377 

sack of the city, and one more commercial rival of Rome was 
wiped from the map. Its works of art (the accumulations of 
centuries) were destroyed or carried to Rome, and it never 
recovered its old eminence in culture, commerce, or power. 

447. The War in Spain. — Hannibal's one remaining chance lay 
in reinforcements by land, from his brother, Hasdrubal, whom 
he had left in command in Spain. But, step by step, the Roman 
Scipio brothers, with overwhelming forces, pushed back the 
Carthaginian frontier in that peninsula, and for many years 
ruined all Hannibal's hopes. At last, in 211, Hasdrubal won a 
great victory, and the two Scipios perished; but Rome promptly 
hurried in fresh forces under the young Puhlius Cornelias Scipio^ 
who, in masterly fashion, for three years more, continued the 
work of his father and uncle. 

448. Changed Character of the War in Italy. — In Italy itself, 
the policy of Fabius was again adopted, varied by the telling 
blows of the vigorous soldier, Marcellus, who was called the 
" Sword '' of Rome, as Fabius was called her " Shield." Han- 
nibal's hopes had been blasted in the moment of victory. Rome 
fell back upon an iron constancy and steadfast caution. Her 
Italian subjects showed a steady fidelity even more ominous to 
the invader. Carthage proved neglectful, and her allies luke- 
warm. 

Against such conditions all the great African's genius in war 
and in diplomacy wore itself out in vain. For thirteen years after 
Cannae he maintained himself in Italy without reinforcement 
in men or money, — always winning a battle when he could 
engage the enemy in the field, — and directing operations as 
best he might in Spain, Sicily, Macedonia, and Africa. But it 
was a war waged by one supreme genius against the most 
powerful and resolute nation in the world. Says Dr. Davis, 
" The greatest military genius who ever lived attacked the most 
military people which ever existed — and the genius was defeated 
after a sixteen years' war." 

449. "Hannibal at the Gates." — One more dramatic scene 
marked Hannibal's career in Italy. The Romans had besieged 



378 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§450 

Capua. In a daring attempt to relieve his ally, Hannibal 
marched to the very walls of Rome, ravaging the fields about 
the city. The Romans, however, were not to be enticed into 
a rash engagement, nor could the army around Capua be drawn 
from its prey. The only result of Hannibal's desperate stroke 
was the fruitless fright he gave Rome, — such that for genera- 
tions Roman mothers stilled their children by the terror-bear- 
ing phrase, " Hannibal at the Gates ! " Roman stories relate, 
however, that citizens were found, even in that hour of fear, to 
show a defiant confidence by buying eagerly at a public sale the 
land where the invader lay encamped. And even Hannibal must 
have felt misgivings when his scouts reported that from another 
gate a Roman army had just marched away contemptuously, 
with colors flying, to reinforce the Roman troops in Spain. 

450. Capua. — Hannibal finally drew off, and Capua fell, — • 
to meet a fate more harsh even than tha't of Syracuse. That 
" second city of Italy " ceased to exist as a city. Its leading 
men were massacred ; most of the rest of the population were 
sold as slaves ; and colonies of Roman veterans were planted 
on its lands. The few remaining inhabitants were governed 
by a prefect from Rome. 

Syracuse and Capua had been faithless allies. They had 
been also rivals in trade ; and their cruel fate was due quite as 
much to Roman greed as to Roman vengeance. Cf. § 374. 

451. Hannibal's Forces Worn Out. — And so the struggle 
entered upon its last, long, wasting stage. It became a record 
of sieges and marches and countermarches. Hannibal's genius 
shone as marvelous as ever, earning him from modern military 
critics the title, " Father of Strategy *' ; but there are no more of 
the dazzling results that mark the first campaigns. Hannibal's 
African and Spanish veterans died off, and had to be replaced 
as best they might by local recruits in Italy ; and gradually 
the Romans learned the art of war from their great enemy. 

" With the battle of Cannae the breathless interest in the war ceases ; 
its surging mass, broken on the walls of the Roman fortresses, . . . foams 
away in ruin and devastation through south Italy, — ever victorious, ever 



§ 4531 WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 379 

receding. Rome, assailed on all sides by open foe and forsworn friend, 
driven to her last man and last coin, ' ever great and greater grows ' in 
the strength of her strong will and loyal people, widening the circle round 
her with rapid blows in Sicily, Sardinia, Spain, and Macedon, while she 
slowly loosens the grip fastened on her throat at home, till in the end . . . 
the final fight on African sands at the same moment closes the struggle 
for life and seats her mistress of the world." — How and Leigh, 199. 

452. The Second Carthaginian Invasion. — Meantime, in Spain, 
Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal, had been contending against 
the crushing force of the Scipios, with the skill and devotion 
of his family. Finally, in 208, by able maneuvers, he eluded 
the Roman generals, and started with a veteran army to rein- 
force Hannibal. Rome's peril was never greater than when 
this second son of Barca crossed the Alps successfully with 
fifty-six thousand men and fifteen elephants. Just before, 
several of the most important " Latin colonies " had given 
notice that they could not much longer sustain the ravages of 
the war. If the two Carthaginian armies joined, Hannibal would 
be able to march at will through Italy, and Rome's faithful 
allies would no longer close their gates against him. 

453. The Metaurus. — The Republic put forth its supreme ef- 
fort. One hundred and fifty thousand men were thrown between 
the two Carthaginian armies, which together numbered some 
eighty thousand. By a fortunate chance the Romans captured 
a messenger from Hasdrubal and so learned his plans, while 
Hannibal was still ignorant of his approach. This gave a de- 
cisive advantage. The opportunity was well used. The consul, 
Claudius Nero, with audacity learned of Hannibal himself, left 
part of his force to deceive that leader, and, hurrying northward 
with the speed of life and death, joined the other consul and 
fell upon Hasdrubal with crushing numbers at the Metaurus. 
The ghastly head of his long-expected brother, flung with brutal 
contempt into his camp,^ was the first notice to Hannibal of 
the ruin of his family and his cause. 

1 This deed was in strange contrast to the chivalrous treatment that Han- 
nibal gave to the bodies of Marcellus and of the Roman generals at Cannae 
and elsewhere. 



380 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§454 

454. The War in Africa. — Still Hannibal remained invincible 
in the mountains of southern Italy. But Rome now carried 
the war into Africa. After Hasdrubal left Spain, Scipio rapidly 
subdued the whole peninsula, and, in 204, he persuaded the 
Senate to send him with a great army against Carthage itself. 
Two years later, to meet this peril, Carthage recalled Hannibal. 
That great leader obeyed sadly, " leaving the country of his 
enemy," says Livy, " with more regret than many an exile has 
left his own." 

This event marks the end of all hope of Carthaginian success. 
The same year (202 e.g.) the struggle closed with Hannibal's 
first and only defeat, at the battle of Zama} Carthage lay at 
the mercy of the victor, and sued for peace. She gave up 
Spain and the islands of the western Mediterranean ; surren- 
dered her war elephants and all her ships of war save ten ; paid 
a huge war indemnity, which was intended to keep her poor 
for many years ; and became a dependent ally of Rome, prom- 
ising to wage no war without Roman consent. Scipio received 
the proud surname Africamis? The Greek cities of the south 
and the mountain tribes that had joined Hannibal lost 
lands and privileges. And Cisalpine Gaul was thoroughly 
Romanized by many a cruel campaign. 

455. Rome Mistress of the West. — Rome had been fighting 
for existence, but she had won world-dominion. In the West no 
rival remained. Her subsequent warfare there was to be only 

1 Zama was a village a little to the south of Carthage. Read the story of 
the battle in Davis' Readings^ II, No. 28. Special report : the career of Han- 
nibal after the war. 

2 A Roman had at least three names. The gentile name was the nomen, 
the most important of the three ; it came in the middle. The third (the cog- 
nomen) marked the family. The first (praenomen) was the individual name 
(like our baptismal name). Then a Roman often received also a surname for 
some achievement or characteristic. Thus Puhlius Cornelius Scipio A/ricanus 
was the individual Publius of the Scipio family of the great Cornelian gens, 
surnamed Africanus for his conquest of Africa. The first name was often 
abbreviated in writing. The most common of these abbreviations were: 
C. for Caius (Gains) ; Cn. for Gnaeus; L. for Lucius; M. for Marcus; P» f o| 
Publius ; Q. for Quintus ; T. for Titus, 



§455] WINNING THE WEST, 264-146 B.C. 381 

with unorganized barbarians. In the East the result was to 
show more slowly; but there, too, Roman victory was now 
only a matter of time. No civilized power was again to threaten 
Rome by invading Italy, and the mighty kingdoms of Alexan- 
der's realms were to be absorbed, one by one, into her empire. 
This imperial destiny was more than Rome had planned. 
Italy she had designed to rule. The West had fallen to her 
as the heir of Carthage. In the East she hesitated honestly, 
until events thrust dominion upon her there also (ch. xxxi). 

This hesitancy in the East was due, in part at least, to respect for 
Greek civilization, to which Rome was beginning to owe more and more. 
It is quite true, though, that, even this early, the commercial interests at 
Rome, excited by greed for fresh booty, used much secret influence to 
foment new wars and extend Roman dominion. This commercial greed 
was later to become a main cause of Roman expansion (cf. § 483)^ 



CHAPTER XXX 
THE WEST FROM 201 TO 146 B.C. 

SPAIN 

456. Spain's Heroic War for Indei)endence. — Rome's rule m 
Spain was still largely a rule only in name. To make it real, 
there was much work yet to do. A land route to that country 
had to be secured ; and the mountain tribes Id the peninsula 
and in its bordering islands had to be thoroughly subdued. 
This involved tedious wars, not always waged with credit to 
Roman honor. 

In Spain two new provinces were created, for which two 
governors were elected annually by the Roman Senate. Some 
of these governors proved rapacious ; others were incompetent ; 
and the proud and warlike tribes of Spain were driven into a 
long war for independence. 

The struggle was marked by the heroic leadership of the 
Spanish patriot, Viriathus, and by contemptible Roman base- 
ness. A Roman general massacred a tribe which had submitted. 
Another general procured the assassination of Viriathus by 
hired murderers. Rome itself rejected treaties after they had 
saved Roman armies. Spanish towns, which had been cap- 
tured after gallant resistance, were wiped from the face of the 
earth, so that other towns chose wholesale suicide rather than 
surrender to Roman cruelty. 

457. Final Romanization. — Still, despite these miserable 
means, Roman conquest in 'the end was to be a blessing to 
Spain. The struggle in the most inaccessible districts went 
on until 133, but long before that year the greater part of the 
land had been Romanized. Traders and speculators flocked to 
the seaports. For more than half a century twenty thousand 

382 



§459] ^ THE WEST, 201-146 B.C. 383 

soldiers were left under arms in the province. These legion- 
aries, quartered in Spain for many years at a time, married 
Spanish wives, and when relieved from military service, they 
gladly received lands in Spain, as a sort of pension, and settled 
down in military colonies, to spread Eoman language and 
customs among the neighboring natives.^ No sooner were the 
restless interior tribes fully subdued than there appeared the 
promise — to be well kept later — that Spain would become 
" more Roman than Rome itself." 

458. South Gaul. — Meantime (about 188) Rome had secured 
a land road, through southern Gaul, from Italy to Spain. This 
was obtained in the main by friendly alliance with the ancient 
Greek city Massilia ; but there was also some warfare with the 
native tribes, which laid the foundations for a new Roman 
province in South Gaul in the near future. 

THE THIRD PUNIC WAR (The War for Africa) 

459. Rome seeks Perfidious Pretext against Carthage. — Even 
before Spain was pacified, hatred and greed had led Rome to 
seize the remaining realms of Carthage. That state was now 
powerless for harm. But Roman fear was cruel ; commercial 
envy was rapacious and reckless ; and (after some fifty years) 
a long series of persecutions forced a needless conflict upon 
the unhappy Carthaginians. The Third Punic War was marked 
by black perfidy on the part of Rome and by the final desperate 
heroism of Carthage. 

First, that city was called upon to surrender Hannibal to 
Roman vengeance.^ Then it was vexed by constant annoyances 
in Africa on the part of Massinissa, Prince of Numidia. Mas- 
sinissa had been Rome's ally in the latter part of the Second 

1 It was in this way that communities of Roman citizens were to be spread 
over other provinces, as they were acquired, one by one, to Italianize the 
world, as a like system of colonization had formerly Romanized Italy. 

2 Hannibal escaped to the East. But Roman petty hatred followed him 
from country to country, until, to avoid falling into Roman hands, he took his 
own life, " proving in a lifelong struggle with fate, that success is in no way 
necessary to greatness." 



384 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§460 

Punic War, and had been rewarded by new dominions carved 
out of Carthaginian territory. Now, encouraged by Borne, he 
encroached more and more, seizing piece after piece of the dis- 
trict that had been left to the vanquished city. 

Repeatedly Carthage appealed to Rome, but her just com- 
plaints brought no redress. The Roman commissioners that 
were sent to act as arbiters — with secret orders beforehand to 
favor Massinissa — carried back to Rome only a greater fear 
of the reviving wealth of Carthage, and told the astonished 
Roman Senate of a city with crowded streets, with treasury 
and arsenals full, and with its harbors thronged with shipping. 
From this time (157 b.c.) the narrow-minded but zealous Cato 
closed every speech in the Senate, no matter what the subject, 
with the phrase " Delenda est Carthago " (Carthage must be 
blotted out). More quietly but more effectively, the Roman 
merchant class strove to the same end, to prevent Carthage 
from recovering its ancient trade in the Mediterranean. 

460. Carthage is treacherously Disarmed. — Carthage was cau- 
tious, and gave no handle to Roman hate, until at last, when 
Massinissa had pushed his seizures almost up to her gates, she 
took up arms against his invasion. By her treaty with Rome 
she had promised to engage in no war without Roman permis- 
sion ; and Rome at once snatched at the excuse to declare war. 

In vain, terrified Carthage punished her leaders and offered 
abject submission. The Roman Senate would only promise 
that the city should be left independent if it complied with the 
further demands of Rome, to be announced on African soil. 
The Roman fleet and army proceeded to Carthage, and an act 
of masterful treachery was played out by successive steps. 

First, at the demand of the Roman general, Carthage sent as 
hostages to the Roman camp three hundred boys from the no- 
blest families, amid the tears and outcries of the mothers. Then, 
on further command, the city dismantled its walls and stripped 
its arsenals, sending, in long lines of wagons, to the Roman 
army 3000 catapults and 200,000 stand of arms, with vast mili- 
tary supplies. Next the shipping was all surrendered. Finally, 



5 462] THE WEST, 201-146 B.C. 385 

now that the city was supposed to be utterly defenseless, came 
the announcement that it must be destroyed and the people 
removed to some spot ten miles inland from the sea, on which 
from dim antiquity they had founded their wealth and power. 

461. Heroic Resistance. — Despair blazed into passionate 
wrath, and the Carthaginians fitly chose death rather than 
ruin and exile. Carelessly enough, the Eoman army remained 
at a distance for some days. Meanwhile the dismantled and 
disarmed town became one great workshop for war. Women 
gave their hair to make cords for catapults ; the temples were 
ransacked for arms, and torn down for timber and metal; and 
to the angry dismay of Rome, Carthage stood a four years' 
siege, holding out heroically against famine, pestilence, and 
war. 

At last the legions forced their way over the walls. For 
seven days more the fighting continued from house to house, 
until at last a miserable remnant surrendered. The commander 
at the last moment made his peace with the Eoman general ; 
but his disdainful wife, taunting him from the burning temple 
roof as he knelt at Scipio's feet, slew their two boys and cast 
herself with them into the ruins. 

462. Carthage is <' blotted out " : the Province of Africa. — 
For many days the city was given up to pillage. Then, hy ex^ 
press orders from Rome, it was burned to the ground, and its 
site was plowed up, sown to salt, and cursed (146 b.c). 

To carry out this crime fell to the lot of one of the purest 
and noblest characters Rome ever produced, — Publius Scipio 
Aemilianus, the nephew and adopted grandson of Scipio Africa- 
nus, known himself as Africanus the Younger. As he watched 
the smoldering ruins (they burned for seventeen days) with 
his friend Polybius the historian, Scipio spoke his fear that 
some day Rome might suffer a like fate, and he was heard to 
repeat Homer's lines : — 

" Yet come it will, the day decreed by fate, 
The day when thou, Imperial Troy, must bend, 
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end." 



386 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§462 

What was left of the ancient territory of Carthage became 
the Province of Africa, with the capital at Utica. Two centu- 
ries later, under the Roman Empire, North Africa became a 
chief seat of Roman civilization. 



For Further Reading. — Specially recommended : Davis' Headings, 
II, Nos. 20-29 (extracts from Livy and Polybius) ; Pelham, 122-133, or, 
much better for this subject, How and Leigh, chs. 19-22. Additional 
material of value and interest will be found in Smith's Borne and Car- 
thage (Epoch series) ; W. W. How's Hannibal ; and especially in Plu- 
tarch's Lives (" Fabius" and " Marcellus"). 

Review Exercise. — Catchword review of Roman expansion in the 
West from 264 to 146. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE WINNING OF THE EAST, 201-146 B.C. 

The expansion of Rome in the fifty years after the Second 
Punic War went on continuously both west and east. The 
two stories, however, had little connection ; and they are given 
in this book in separate chapters. We have dealt with the 
West for that half century in Chapter XXX. Now we turn 
to the East. 

AN ATTEMPT AT PROTECTORATES 

463. Earlier Beginnings: the First Macedonian War. — Evei 
since the repulse of Pyrrhus, Rome had been drifting into con- 
tact with the Greek kingdoms of the East. With Egypt she 
had a friendly alliance and close commercial intercourse. Be- 
tween the First and the Second Punic War, too, she had chas- 
tised the formidable pirates of the Illyrian coasts, and so, as 
the guardian of order, had come into friendly relations with 
some of the cities in Greece (§ 432). 

Further than this, Rome showed no desire to go. But, in 
214, Philip V of Macedonia joined himself to Hannibal against 
Rome (§ 432). The war with Macedonia which followed is 
known as the First Macedonian War, Rome entered upon it 
only to prevent a Macedonian invasion of Italy, and she waged 
it by means of her Aetolian allies.^ It closed in 205, before 
the end of the Second Punic War, without any especial change 
in eastern affairs ; hut it made later struggles natural, 

464. Second Macedonian War. — In 205, Philip V of Macedon 
and Antiochus of Syria tried to seize Egypt, left just then to 
a boy king. Egypt was an ally of Rome. Moreover, it was 

1 Aetolia had sought Roman protection against Macedonia and had been 
recognized as an " ally " (§ 310) . 

387 



388 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§465 

already becoming the granary of the Mediterranean, and Rome 
could not wisely see it pass into hostile hands. Philip also 
attacked Athens, another of Rome's allies. So, as soon as 
Rome's hands were freed by the peace with Carthage, the Sen- 
ate persuaded the wearied Assembly to enter upon the Second 
Macedonian War (201-196 e.g.). 

At first Philip won some success ; but in 198 the Senate in- 
trusted the war to Flamininus, who was to be the first Roman 
conqueror in the East. Flamininus was one of the group of 
young Romans around Scipio Aemilianus imbued with Hellenic 
culture and chivalrous ideals. His appointment proved par- 
ticularly grateful to the Greek allies of Rome, and his excel- 
lent generalship quickly put Philip on the defensive. The 
decisive battle was fought at Cynoscephalae (Dog's heads), a 
group of low hills in Thessaly ; and the result was due, not to 
generalship, but to the fighting qualities of the soldiery. The 
two armies were of nearly equal size. They met in mist and 
rain, and the engagement was brought on by a chance encounter 
of scouting parties. The flexible legion proved its superiority 
over the unwieldy phalanx (^ 4:03). The Roman loss was 700; 
the Macedonian, 13,000. 

Philip was left at the mercy of the victor, but the chivalrous 
Flamininus gave generous terms. Macedonia, it is true, sank 
into a second-rate power, and became a dependent ally of Rome. 
But Rome herself took no territory. Macedonia's possessions 
in Greece were taken from her, and Flamininus proclaimed 
that the Greeks were "free." The many Greek states, along 
with Rhodes and Pergamum and the other small states of Asia, 
became Rome's grateful allies. In name they were equals of 
Rome ; in fact, they were Roman protectorates. That is, Rome 
controlled all the foreign relations of each of them, — at least, 
whenever she cared to do so. 

465. The War with Antiochus of Syria. — Meanwhile Anti- 
ochus had sheltered Hannibal and had been plundering Egypt's 
possessions in Asia. Now he turned to seize Thrace, Greece, 
Pergamum, and Rhodes. Rome sincerely dreaded a conflict 



5 466] WINNING THE EAST, 201-146 B.C. 389 

with the " Great King," the Lord of Asia, but she had no choice. 
The struggle proved easy and brief. In the second campaign, 
in 190, Roman legions for the first time invaded Asia, and at 
Magnesia,^ in Lydia, they shattered the power of Syria. That 
kingdom was reduced in territory and power, somewhat as 
Macedonia had been, hut Rome still kept no territory for herself. 
Her allies were rewarded with gifts of territory ; and the Hel- 
lenic cities and small states of Asia were declared free, and 
really became friendly dependents of Rome. 

466. The System of Protectorates.^ — Thus, in eleven years 
{200-190 B.C.) after the close of the Second Punic War, Rome 
had set up a virtual protectorate over all the realms of Alex^ 
ander^s successors. 

To Rome herself, this expansion of power was to prove a 
curse ; but to her dependent realms it was a blessing. The 
Greek states were embroiled ceaselessly in petty quarrels among 
themselves, and they were endangered constantly by the greed 
of their greater neighbors. From all sides came appeals to 
Rome to prevent injustice. The disturbing powers were 
Macedonia, Syria, and the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues. 
The forces which stood for peace were Egypt, Rhodes, Perga- 
mum, and the small states of European Greece. It was 
these pacific states which especially claimed protection from 
Rome. 

The weakness of the eastern states drew the great western 
power on and on, and her own methods became less and less 
scrupulous. Cruelty and cynical disregard for obligations 
more and more stamped her conduct. But, after all, as How 
and Leigh well say, " compared with the Ptolemies, Seleucids, 
and Antigonids,^ her hands were clean and her rule bearable. 
In that intolerable eastern hubbub, men's eyes turned still 
with envy and wonder to the stable and well-ordered Republic 
of the West." 

1 The Roman commander was Lucius Scipio, who took the name Asiaticus; 
but credit was really due to his brother Publius, who accompanied him, 
a Cf . § 293. « A ruling family in Macedonia. 



390 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§467 

" The Roman Senate, which so lately sat to devise means to save Rome 
from the grasp of Hannibal, now sits as a Court of International Justice 
for the whole civilized world, ready to hear the causes of every king or 
commonwealth that has any plaint against any other king or common- 
wealth. . . . The Roman Fathers judge the causes of powers which in 
theory are the equal allies of Rome ; they judge by virtue of no law, of no 
treaty ; they judge because the common instinct of mankind sees the one 
universal judge in the one power which has strength to enforce its judg- 
ments." — Freeman, Chief Periods, 58. 

467. Rome and Judea. — An interesting illustration of this 
feeling of the small Oriental States for Rome is found in Jewish 
history. Antiochus IV of Syria sought ardently to Hellenize 
completely all parts of his dominions. In Judea he felt himself 
thwarted by the strong national feeling of the people and 
especially by the Jewish religion. So, in 168 e.g., he ordered 
the Jews to renounce their worship for that of the Greeks, and he 
even dedicated to Zeus the holy Temple which Solomon had 
built to Jehovah. This sacrilege drove the gallant little people 
into revolt, under the hero Judas Maccabee. The Jewish 
historian of the time tells how this leader naturally turned 
his eyes toward Rome. (1 Maccabees, viii) 

*' And Judas heard of the fame of the Romans, — that they are valiant 
men . . . and that with their friends they keep friendship . . . More- 
over, whomsoever they will to succor and to make kings, these do they 
make kings ; and whomsoever they will, do they depose ; and, for all 
this, none of them ever did put on a diadem, neither did they clothe them- 
selves with purple, to be magnified thereby . . . and how they had made 
for themselves a Senate-House, and day by day three hundred men sat 
there in council, consulting alway for the people . . . and how they com- 
mit their government to one man year by year [the consuls] . . . and all 
are obedient to that one ; and neither is there envy nor emulation among 
themy 

The Jews did win their freedom, and remained one of the 
small independent kingdoms of the East from 145 to 63 b.c. 
Then they were made a tributary kingdom, and, not long after, 
they became a province of Rome (§ 582). 



§470] WINNING THE EAST, 201-146 B.C. 391 



THE PROTECTORATES ARE ANNEXED AS PROVINCES 

468. A Gradual Change. — Conditions in the East were un- 
stable. Rome could not stop with protectorates. They had 
neither the blessings of real liberty nor the good order of true 
provinces. And so gradually Rome was led to a process of 
annexation of territory in the civilized East, as before in the 
barbarous West. By 146 b.c. this change was well under way. 
In the next hundred years — before the day of the Caesars — 
the original influence over " allies " had everywhere been trans- 
formed into dominion over subject provinces. 

469. A deplorable change in Roman character took place early 
in this period. Appetite for power grew with its exercise. 
Jealousy appeared toward the prosperity of even the truest 
ally. A class of ambitious nobles craved new wars of conquest 
for the sake of glory and power ; and the growing class of merchants 
and money lenders (who now indirectly dominated the govern- 
ment) hungered raveningly for conquests in order to secure 
more special privileges in the form of trade monopolies and the 
management of finances in new provinces. Thus, to extend 
her sway in the East, where at first she had hesitated so mod- 
estly, Rome finally sank to violence and perfidy as high-handed 
and as base as had marked her treatment of Carthage in the 
West, at the beginning of the same period. 

We can note here only three or four chief steps in the long 
process of Eastern annexation. 

470. Macedonia. — Rome's gentle treatment of the Greek 
states after the Second Macedonian War (§ 464) was due largely 
to a true admiration for Greek civilization and Greek history. 
But this feeling was soon lost in contempt for Greek fickleness 
and weakness and inability for concerted action — and in greed 
for Greek riches. On their side, the Greek cities at first had 
welcomed Rome joyfully as a guardian of Hellenic liberty. 
But high-handed Roman officials, with their assumption of mas- 
tery, and their frequent contemptuous disregard of treaties, 
soon made these cities look back regretfully to the rule of 



392 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§ 471 

Macedonia, which at least had had understanding and sympathy 
for Greek character. 

Perseus of Macedonia (son of Philip V) took advantage of 
this revulsion of feeling to form alliances with the Greek 
states in the hope of recovering a true national independence. 
This brought on a Third Macedonian War, and the Koman 
victory of Pydna (168 e.g.) closed the life of the ancient king- 
dom of Macedonia.^ That state was broken up into four petty 
" republics," which were declared free, but which were provinces 
of Rome in all but name and good order. They paid tribute, 
were disarmed, and were forbidden intercourse with one another ; 
but they did not at first receive a Koman governor. Some years 
later a pretended son of Perseus tried to restore the monarchy ; 
and this attempt led to the full establishment of the Roman 
"Province of Macedonia," with a Roman magistrate at its 
head (146 e.g.). 

471. Rearrangements in Greece. — Pydna had been followed 
also by important rearrangements in Greece, and the factions 
there, which had sympathized with Perseus in his hopeless strug- 
gle, had been cruelly punished. In the succeeding years 
the Roman Senate was called upon to listen to ceaseless weari- 

1 Plutarch {Life of Aemilius Paulus) describes the gorgeous "triumph" 
of the Roman general on his return. For three days a festal procession pa- 
raded the city, to the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline. Throngs of white- 
robed citizens watched the procession from scaffolds, which had been erected 
for the purpose in all convenient places. On the first day, two hundred 
and fifty wagons carried by the statues and paintings which had been plundered 
from Macedonian cities. On the next day passed many wagons, carrying 
Macedonian standards and armor, followed by three thousand men loaded 
with the silver money and silver plate which had been secured in the booty. On 
the third day came a procession of men carrying gold spoil, followed by the 
conqueror in a splendid chariot, behind which walked the conquered king 
with his three young children. 

Rome so filled her coffers with treasure by this plunder that the Republic 
never thereafter taxed her citizens. And besides this public plunder, the 
Roman general had paid his soldiers by permitting them to sack seventy 
helpless rich cities in Epirus. The unspeakable suffering and misery, — the 
ruined lives and broken families, — in every such city is simply beyond the 
power of the imagination to picture. 



§471] 



WINNING THE EAST, 201-146 B.C. 



393 



some complaints from one Greek city or party against another. 
The Eoman policy was sometimes vacillating, sometimes con- 
temptuous. Finally the Achaeans were goaded into open rebel- 
lion. The Achaean League fell easily before Roman arms, in 
146 B.C. Corinth had been the chief offender. By order of 




Ruins at Corinth, as they appeared in 1905. The Roman destruction was 
so complete that the site of Corinth has yielded less to the modem ex- 
cavator than almost any other famous ancient center. The building in 
the foreground was a temple of Apollo — the only Doric temple known 
whose columns are monoliths. In the background is the ancient citadel, 
Acrocorinth. 



the Senate that city was burned and its site cursed, and its 
people murdered or sold as slaves. 

Greece was not yet made a province, but it was treated as 
Macedon had been just after Pydna, and was virtually ruled 
by the Roman governor of Macedon. Thus the one year 146 
B.C. saw the last territory of Carthage made a Roman province 
and the first province formed in the old empire of Alexander, 
together with the destruction of the ancient cities of Carthage 
and Corinth. A century later Greece became the Province of 
Achaea. 



394 ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY [§472 

The destruction of Corinth was a greater crime than that of Carthage, 
Syracuse, Capua, or the other capitals that Roman envy laid low. Corinth 
was a great emporium of Greece, and its ruin was due mainly to the jealousy 
of the commercial class in Rome. Its art treasures, so far as preserved, be- 
came the plunder of the Roman state ; but much was lost. Polybius saw 
common soldiers playing at dice, amid the still smoking ruins, on the 
paintings of the greatest masters. 

472. The Province of Asia. — A few years after Macedonia 
became a province, the king of Pergamum willed to Rome his 
realms, which became the Province of Asia (133 b.c). 

After the battle of Magnesia (§ 465), Pergamum had been enlarged so 
that it included most of western Asia Minor. This region was now known 
as " Asia." It is in this sense that the word " Asia " is used in the Acts 
of the Apostles ; as, for instance, when Paul says, that, after going 
through Phrygia, he was forbidden " to pass into Asia," and again later, 
that " all they who dwelt in Asia " heard the word. 

473. Rhodes and Roman Greed. — Further progress in the East 
in this period consisted in jealously reducing friendly allies, 
like Rhodes, to the condition of subjects, and in openly setting 
up protectorates over Egypt and Syria. It is in this series of 
events that Rome's lust for power and greed for money begin 
to show most hatefully. She had no more generosity for a 
faithful ally than she had magnanimity toward a fallen foe ; 
and her treatment of Rhodes gains little by contrast with her 
perfidious dealings with Carthage. Rhodes, of course, never had 
been or could be a danger to Rome's power. Indeed she had 
been a most faithful and trusting friend. But the Roman 
merchants looked avariciously upon her wide-spread commerce; 
and a sham excuse was seized upon greedily to rob that help- 
less friend of her territory and trade. 

SUMMARY 

474. Rome the Sole Great Power. — In 264 b.c. Rome had 
been one of Jive Great Powers (§ 417). By the peace of 201 
after Zama, Carthage disappeared from that list. In the next 
fifty years Cynoscephalae, Magnesia, Pydna, and arrogant 



§475] 



WINNING THE EAST, 201-146 B.C. 



395 



Eoman diplomacy removed three of the others. In 146, Rome 
was the sole Great Power. She had annexed as provinces all 
the dominions of Carthage and of Macedonia. Egypt and 
Syria had become protectorates and were soon to be made prov- 
inces. All the smaller states had been brought within the 
Roman " sphere of influence." Rome held the heritage of Alex- 
ander as well as that of Carthage. There remained no state 




able to dream of equality with her. Tlie civilized world had 
become a Graeco-Roman Wbrldj under Eoman sway. 

475. The Latin West and the Greek East. — At the same time, 
while Rome was really mistress in both East and West, her relations 
with the two sections were widely different. In the West, Rome ap- 
peared on the stage as the successor of Carthage ; and to the majority 
of her Western subjects, despite terrible cruelties in war, she brought 
better order and higher civilization than they had known. Thus the 
Western world became Latin. 

In the East, Rome appeared first as the liberator of the Greeks. The 
provincial system and the good Roman order were introduced slowly; 
and to the last, the East remained Greek, not Latin, in language, customs, and 
thought. The Adriatic continued to divide the Latin and Greek civilizations 
when the two shared the world under the sway of Rome. 



For Further Reading. — Specially recommended: An admirable 
brief treatment of the expansion in the East is given in Pelham, 140-157. 
The student will do well to read either this or the longer treatment, with 



396 



ROMAN EXPANSION BEYOND ITALY 



[§475 



more story, in How and Leigh, chs. 25-27. Additional : Plutarch's Lives 
(" Aemilius Paulus/' " Flamininus ") as usual, and Mahaffy's Alexander'' s 
Empire, chs. 27-3L There is a noble summary of the whole period of 
Roman expansion in Freeman's Chief Periods, 45-69, but the book is not 
very likely to be found in a high school library. 

Review Exercises. — 1. Catchword review of Rome's progress in the 
East. 

2. Connected review of the general topic of Rome's growth by large 
periods ; thus, — 

(1) Growth under the Kings. 

(2) Growth during the strife between patricians and plebeians, 

610-367. 

(3) Growth of united Rome (under the guidan<je of the Senate), 

367-146. 

3. Catchword review of the same topic — Roman expansion — from 
legendary times to 146 b.c. 

4. Catchword review of each of the three great eastern kingdoms, — 
Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt, —from the Wars of the Succession (§ 287) 
to the condition of a Boman province. 

6. The following Table of Dates will help the student to see the 
parallelism in time between Greek and Roman history, down to the 
merging of East and West. 





GREECE 




B.C. 




B.C. 


610 . . 


Expulsion of the Pisis- 
tratidae 


510 . 


509 . . 


Constitution of Clis- 
thenes 




500-494 . 


The Ionic revolt 


494 . 


492-479 . 


Attack by Persia and 
Carthage 




490 . . 


Marathon 


486 . 


480 . . 


Thermopylae, Salamis, 
Himera 




477 . . 


Confederacy of Delos 




468 . . 


Eurymedon 


462 . 


461-429 . 


Leadership of Pericles 




458 . . 


Long Walls at Athens 





ROME 

Legendary Expulsion of 
the Tarquins 



First secession of the 
plebs ; Tribunes 



Agrarian proposal of 
Spurius Cassius 



Proposal for written laws 



§475] 



ROMAN AND GREEK EVENTS 



397 





GREECE 






ROME 


B.C. 






B.C. 




454 . 


. Athenian disaster 
Egypt 


in 


451-449 . 


The Decemvirs; the 
Twelve Tables ; second 
secession of the plebs 


445 . 


. Thirty Years' Truce 




445 . . 

444 , . 
443 . . 


Intermarriage between 

the orders legalized 
Consular tribunes 
Censors 



438 . . The Parthenon com- 
pleted 
431-404 . Peloponnesian War 

415-413 . The Sicilian expedition 
411 . . The "Four Hundred" 

at Athens 
405 . . Aegospotami 
404-371 . Supremacy of Sparta 
401 . . March of the Ten Thou- 
sand Greeks 
899 . . Execution of Socrates 
396 . . Agesilaus invades Asia 
394 . . Cnidus 
393 . . Athens' Long Walls re- 
built 
387 . . Peace of Antalcidas 
383-379 . Sparta crushes the Chal- 

cidic Confederacy 
371 . Leuctra 
371-362 . Theban leadership 
362 . . Battle of Mantinea 

359-336 . Philip king of Macedon 
351 . . First Philippic of Demos- 
thenes 
348 . . Death of Plato 

338 . . Chaeronea 

336-323 . Rule of Alexander the 

Great 
334 . . The Granicus 
333 . . Issus 



409 



400 



390 



367 



Plebeians attain the 
quaestorship 



Plebeians attain the con- 
sular tribuneship 



Gauls sack Rome 



The Licinian Laws 



356 . . 


Plebeians attain the dic- 




tatorship 


351 . . 


Plebeians attain the cen- 




sorship 


343-341 . 


First Samnite War 


340-338 . 


The Latin War 


337 . . 


The plebeians attain the 




praetorship 




ROMAN AND GREEK EVENTS 



[§475 



ROME 



GREECE 

332 . . Siege of Tyre; Alexan- 
dria founded 
331 . . Arbela 
325 . . Expedition of Nearchus 
323-276 . Wars of the Succession 



285-247 . Ptolemy Philadelphus 
280 . . The Achaean League 
278 . . The Gallic invasion 

245 . . Aratus, general of the 
Achaean League 

241 . . Agis at Sparta 

235 . . Struggle between 
Achaean League and 
Sparta; Cleomenes' 
reforms 

220 . . Marked decline in the 
Graeco-Oriental king- 
doms 



215-205 . First Macedonian War 

207 
202 
Second Macedonian War 
Cynoscephalae ; Macedonia a dependent ally 
War with Syria 

Magnesia ; Syria a dependent ally 
Third Macedonian War 
Pydna 

Third Punic War 

Destruction of Carthage and Corinth; Macedonia and 
Africa become Roman provinces ; Greece dependent 
183 . . The Province of Asia 



B.C. 




332 . . 


The Tribes increased to 




twenty-nine 


326-304 . 


Second Samnite War 


321 . . 


Caudine Forks 


312 . . 


Appius Claudius, censor 


300 . . 


Plebeians become augurs 




and pontiffs 


298-290 . 


Third Samnite War 


280-275 . 


War with Pyrrhus 


266 . . 


Conquest of the Gauls 




to the Rubicon 


264-241 . 


First Punic War : Sicily 




becomes Roman 


241-238 . 


The Mercenary War 


225-222 . 


Cisalpine Gaul becomes 




Roman 


218-201 . 


Second Punic War ; 




Spain a Roman 




province 


216 . . 


Cannae 


War 

207 . . 


Battle cf the Metaurus 


202 . . 


Zama 



201- 


-196 . 


197 




192- 


-188 . 


189 




171- 


-167. 


168 


. 


149- 


-146 . 


146 


. 



CHAITER XXXII 

NEW STRIFE OF CLASSES, 146-49 B.C. 

PRELIMINARY SURVEY 

476. The history of the Roman Republic falls into three great 
divisions : — 

a. The internal coyiflict between plebeians and patricians (a 
century and a half, 510-367). This period closed with the 
fusion of the old classes into a united people. 

b. The expansion of this united Borne (a little more than 
two centuries) : over Italy, 367-266 ; over the Mediterranean 
coasts, 264-146. 

c. A new internal strife (less than a century, 146-49). 

The first two periods we have already surveyed. The third is 
the subject of the present chapter and the two following ones. 

477. New Period of Class Conflicts. — The senatorial oligarchy 
(§ 400) carried Rome triumphantly through her great wars, 
but it failed to devise a plan of government fit for the con- 
quests outside Italy. It knew how to conquer, but not how to 
rule. Gross misgovernment followed abroad. This corrupted 
the citizens and lowered the moral tone at home, until the 
Eepublic was no longer fit to rule even Italy or herself. TJiere 
resulted a threefold conflict: in Rome, betiveen rich and poor; ^ in 
Italy, betiveen Rome and the '' Allies ^\' in the empire at large, 
between Italy and the provinces. 

478. New External Danger. — Moreover, Rome had left no 
other state able to keep the seas free from pirates or to guard 
the frontiers of the civilized world against barbarians. It was 
therefore her plain duty to police the Mediterranean lands 

1 This class struggle, unlike that between patricians and plebeians, bears 
closely upon that of our day. 

399 



400 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC [§479 

herself. But erelong this simple duty was neglected ; the 
seas swarmed again with pirate fleets, and new barbarian 
thunderclouds, unwatched, gathered on all the frontiers. 

479. The Plan of Treatment. — Each of these evils will be sur- 
veyed in detail (§§ 480-505). Then we shall notice how the senatorial 
oligarchy grew more and more irresponsible and incompetent. It was 
not able itself to grapple with the new problems which expansion had 
brought, and it jealously crushed out each individual statesman who 
tried to heal the diseases of the state in constitutional ways (§§ 507- 
530). Thus, when the situation became unbearable, power fell to a 
series of military chiefs — Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar. The despotic 
usurpations of these leaders led to a new system of government which 
we call the Empire. 

THE EVILS IN EOME 

480. Industrial and Moral Decline due to the Great Wars. — 

Rome had begun to decline in morals and in industries before 
the end of the Second Punic War. Even a glorious war tends 
to demoralize society. It corrupts morals and creates extremes 
of wealth and poverty. Extreme poverty lowers the moral 
tone further. So does quick-won and unlawful wealth. Then 
the moral decay of the citizens at both extremes shows in 
the state as political disease. The Second Punic War teaches 
this lesson to the full. 

In that war Italy lost a million lives — the flower of the 
citizen body, including thousands of her most high-spirited 
and great- souled youth, who, in peace, would have served the 
state nobly through a long life. The race was made perma- 
nently poorer by that terrible hemorrhage. The adult Roman 
citizens fell off from 298,000 to 214,000. Over much of the 
peninsula the homesteads had been hopelessly devastated; 
while years of camp life, with plunder for pay, had corrupted 
the simple tastes of the old yeomen. In the ruin of the small 
farmer, Hannibal had dealt his enemy a deadlier blow than he 
ever knew. 

Trade, too, had stagnated ; and so illegitimate profits were 
eagerly sought. The merchants who had risked their wealth 



5 482] A CAPITALISTIC SYSTEM 401 

so enthusiastically to supply their country in her dire need 
after Cannae (§ 444) began to indemnify themselves, as soon 
as that peril was over, by fraudulent war contracts. We are 
told even that sometimes they over-insured ships, supposed 
to be loaded with supplies for the army in Spain or Africa, and 
then scuttled them, to get the insurance money from the state. 
Thus the farmers had been impoverished. In the cities there 
gathered a starving rabble. And between these masses and the 
old senatorial oligarchy there sprang up a new aristocracy of 
wealth. Its members were known as equites (knights).^ Its 
riches were based on rapacious plunder of conquered countries, 
on fraudulent contracts with the government at home, on 
reckless speculation, and on unjust appropriation of the public 
lands (for the restriction of the Licinian law (§ 370) had be- 
come a dead letter, and the wealthy classes again used the 
state lands as private property). 

481. This new "capitalistic" system demands further notice. 
Rome became the money center of the world. Its capitalists, 
organized in partnerships and in stock companies, had their 
central offices in Rome, along the Via Sacra (the first " Wall 
Street "), and branch offices in the most important provincial 
centers, like Alexandria, Ephesus, and Antioch. Through 
numerous agents, scattered over the Roman world, they man- 
aged the " public works " (the construction of aqueducts, 
theaters, sewers, etc.) for distant provincial cities — at huge 
profits — or they loaned the cities the money for such neces- 
sary improvements — at from 12 to 50 per cent interest. A 
specially profitable business of such companies was " farming 
the taxes" of rich. provinces (§ 500). 

482. Trade Monopolies. — Some of these companies were or- 
ganized to engross the trade or the production of certain com- 
modities, so as unduly to raise the price. About 200 b.c. we 
read of an " oil trust " in Rome (olive oil, of course, which was 
an important element in Italian and Greek living). Plainly 

^This order must not be confused with the early military knights (§ 348). 




/the later ROMAN REPUBLIC [§483 

these illegal " combinations in restraint of trade " (such as 
the United States has been trying to control since 1890) were 
common in Rome after the Second Punic War. In 191 B.C., 
a Roman drama refers incidentally to a "corner in grain" 
which was then distressing the people. Two years later, 
this trade monopoly had become so serious that the govern- 
ment had to step in, for the public safety. The aediles prose- 
cuted the "malefactors of great wealth" under an ancient law 
of the Twelve Tables, and heavy fines were imposed upon 
them. Plainly the government could not let speculators so 
directly rob the Roman populace of bread, without danger 
of revolution ; but ordinarily the capitalistic syndicates went 
their extortionate ways unhindered. 

483. The Money Power and the Government. — The senatorial 
families were forbidden by law (in 218) to engage in foreign 
trade or to take government contracts. Therefore the " money 
kings " who desired a certain policy by the government could 
not themselves enter the Senate to secure it (as they some- 
times have done in America). But none the less, indirectly, 
the moneyed interests did control the government. 

This condition began in the Punic Wars; and, as in part 
has been shown, it began with the patriotic action of the men 
of wealth. Year by year, during that long and desperate 
struggle, the Senate needed immense sums of money, such as 
the Roman treasury had never before known. There was no 
time to build up a new state system of finance. The Senate 
asked aid from the companies of capitalists. These com- 
panies equipped Roman fleets and armies, and furnished the 
" sinews of war " by which Hannibal was held in check. But, 
in return, the state came to depend upon the moneyed powers 
even after the danger was past. Then grew up a very real, 
though wholly informal, alliance between the " interests " and 
the government. 

The capitalists kept in close touch with the governing class 
in various ways. They loaned money to aspiring young nobles, 
to help them attain their political ends ; and in return they 



5484] MONEY POWER AND THE GOVERNMENT 403 

expected and received favors when these nobles became influ- 
ential leaders at Rome or the governors of provinces abroad. 
A provincial governor could easily induce a rich city to give 
fat contracts to his favorite Roman syndicate ; or he could 
suable the syndicate to squeeze from a debtor city the last 
penny of extortionate interest which its government had care- 
lessly or foolishly or wrongfully promised. 

The syndicates were of no political party. Like " big busi- 
ness " in our own time, they sought to control or own every 
leader and party which might be sometime able to serve them. 
Moreover, small shares of the stock companies were widely 
distributed, so that the whole middle class of citizens was 
interested in every prospect of enlarged dividends. Such 
citizens could be counted upon to support any project of the 
moneyed interests with their votes in the Assembly, and with 
their shoutings in the street mobs. Indeed there were many 
striking resemblances between the relation of Roman "big 
business " to the Roman state and the relation between the great 
corporations and the government in our own day and country.^ 

484. The Rise of Luxury. — With the equites and the nobles, 
the old Roman simplicity gave way to sumptuous luxury. There 
was a growing display in dress and at the table, in rich draperies 
and couches and other house furnishings, in the houses them- 
selves, in the celebration of marriages, and at funerals. As the 
Roman Juvenal wrote later: "Luxury has fallen upon us — more 
terrible than the sword ; the conquered East has avenged her- 
self by the gift of her vices.^' The economic phenomena, good 
and bad, that had occurred in the Greek world (§§ 283-286) 
after the conquests of Alexander, were now repeated on a 
larger scale in Italy — with a difference : the coarser Roman re- 
sorted too often to tawdry display and to gluttony or other brutal 
excesses from which the temperate Greek turried with disgust. 

^ In this treatment of Roman capitalism after 200 B.C., the author has drawn 
freely from two recent books of great value, — Dr. William Stearns Davis' 
Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome, and Dr. Frank Frost Abbott's Common 
People of Ancient Rome, 



404 



THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC 



[§485 



From this time, the Romans indulged in extremes of luxury 
which had not been dreamed of by the Athenians of Pericles' 
day. They had far more elegant houses, bigger troops of 
slaves, and much more ostentation of all sorts. 

Exaggerated copies of the Greek public baths (§ 238) ap- 
peared in Rome. These became great public clubhouses, 
where the more voluptuous and idle citizens spent many hours 




Ruins of the House of M. Olconius at Pompeii. i 

a day. Besides the various rooms for baths, — hot, tepid, or 
cold, — there were in a bathing house swimming pools, libraries, 
and, often, museums. There were also many colonnades with 
benches and couches; and the extensive gardens contained 
delightful shady walks, along whose borders stood, now and 
then, noble statues, the booty of some Hellenic city. 

485. Excursus: Homes. — Rome's narrow streets seemed 
narrower than ever, now that buildings rose several stories 

1 Cf . § 583 for the preservation of Pompeian remains. 



§486] HOME LIFE 405 

high, to house the growing city population. They were dirty, 
too, and, as in Greek cities (§ 233), they ran between blank 
walls, so far as the lower stories of the houses were concerned. 

The private houses of wealthy men had come to imitate the 
Greek type. We have already noticed (§ 411) that the original 
"house" had become a central hall (atrium) with rooms on 
the sides and rear. This atrium now became di, front hall, where 
the master of the house received his guests. It was shut off 
from the street by a vestibule and porter's room. Its central 
opening to the sky still admitted light and air, and it now held 
a marble basin to catch the rain. Often an ornamental foun- 
tain was now introduced, to play constantly into this basin, 
surrounded by statues. In the rear was a second court, more 
fully open to the sky, with flower beds and blooming shrubbery. 
About this court {peristyle), which was bordered by rows of 
columns, stood many rooms for the women and for various 
domestic occupations. Each house had its kitchens and several 
dining rooms, large and small, where stood tables, each sur- 
rounded on three sides by luxurious couches, in place of the 
old-fashioned hard benches. The Romans had now adopted 
the Greek practice of reclining at meals. Each fashionable 
house, too, had its bathrooms, one or more, and its library. 
The pavement of the courts, and many floors, were orna- 
mented with artistic mosaic. The walls were hung with 
costly, brilliantly colored tapestries, and ceilings were richly 
gilded. Sideboards held beautiful vases and gold and silver 
plate, and in various recesses stood glorious statues. Each such 
house now had its second story. 

Besides his town house, each rich Roman had one or more 
country houses (villas), with all the comforts of the city — 
baths, libraries, museums, — and also with extensive park -like 
grounds, containing fishponds, vineyards, and orchards. To 
care for the complex needs of this new luxurious life, every 
man of wealth kept troops of slaves in his household. 

486. Gladiatorial Games. — Alongside this private luxury, 
there grew the practice of entertairdng the populace with shows. 



406 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC (§487 

These were often connected with religious festivals, and were 
of many kinds. It was the special duty of the aediles to care 
for public entertainment, but gradually many candidates foi 
popular favor began to give shows of this kind. 

Among these new shows were the horrible gladiatorial games. 
These came, not from the Greek East, but from neighbors in 
Italy. They were an old Etruscan custom (§ 331, close), and 
were introduced into Rome about the beginning of the Punic 
Wars. A gladiatorial contest was a combat in which two men 
fought each other to the death for the amusement of the spec- 
tators. The practice was connected with ancient human sacri- 
fices for the dead, and at Rome the first contests of this kind 
took place only at the funerals of nobles. By degrees, how- 
ever, they became the most popular of the public amusements 
and were varied in character. A long series of combats would 
be given at a single exhibition, and many couples, armed in 
different ways, would engage at the same time. Sometimes 
wild beasts, also, fought one another, and sometimes beasts 
fought with men. 

At first the gladiators were captives in war, and fought in 
their native fashion, for the instruction as well as the enter- 
tainment of the spectators. Later, slaves and condemned 
criminals were used. Finally this fighting became a profes- 
sion, for which men prepared by careful training in gladiatorial 
schools. 

487. Greek Culture — Alongside these evil features there 
was some compensation in a new inflow of Greek culture. 
Men like Flamininus and the Scipios absorbed much of the 
best spirit of Greek thought ; and there was a general admira- 
tion for Greek art and literature. For a long time to come, 
however, this did not make Rome herself productive in art or 
literature. Greek became the fashionable language; Greek 
marbles and pictures were carried off from Greek cities to 
adorn Roman palaces. But Rome, in this period, produced 
few great sculptors or painters, and such books as appeared 
were mainly the work of Greek adventurers (§ 624). 



§488] DECLINE OF THE YEOMANRY 407 

488. Continued Decline of the Yeomanry — The rift between 
rich and poor went on widening after the great wars were over. 
Rome soon had its hungry masses of unemployed laborers in 
the city and its land question in the country. 

Those of the yeomanry who had survived the ruin of war 
(§ 480) were fast squeezed off the land by economic conditions 




Remains of a Court of a Private Residence at Pompeii. 

{House of the Vettii.) 

resulting from Rome's conquests. The nobles, who could not 
invest their riches in trade, secured vast landed estates in the 
provinces out of confiscated lands sold by the state or by cheap 
purchase from the ruined natives. From such large farms in 
Sicily and in the African "grain provinces" they supplied 
Italian cities with grain cheaper than the Italian farmer could 
raise it on his less fertile soil. The large landlord in Italy 
turned to cattle grazing or sheep raising or to wine and oil 
culture. The small farmer had no such escape; for these 
forms of industry called for large tracts and slave labor. For 



408 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC [§489 

grazing, or often simply for pleasure resorts, the new capital- 
ists and the nobility wanted even vaster domains. So they 
bought out the near-by small farmers. 

489. Force and Fraud by the Rich. — The decreased profits in 
grain raising made many small farmers (already ruined) will- 
ing to sell — though they could look forward to no certain 
future, and must expect a total change in their life. And 
when the small farmer would not sell, the rich and grasping 
landlord sometimes had recourse to force or fraud, to get the 
coveted patch of land. This was especially true in the more 
secluded regions, where, despite all discouragements, the yeo- 
men clung stubbornly to their ancestral fields. In pathetic 
words the Latin poet Horace (§ 626 ) describes the violence 
and trickery used by the great man toward such helpless 
victims.^ The yeoman's cattle were likely to die mysteriously, 
or his growing crops were trampled into the ground over night ; 
or constant petty annoyances wore down his spirit, until he 
would sell at the rich man's price. Redress at law, as in our 
own times, was usually too costly and too uncertain for a poor 
man in conflict with a rich one. 

490. Summary. — The wars in the East continued to supply 
cheap slaves for the landlords ; and the dispossessed yeoman 
could find no employment in the country. Thus we have a 
series of forces all tending to the same end : — 

a. the cheap grain from the provinces ; 

6. the introduction of a new industry better suited to large 
holdings and to slave labor ; 

c. the growth of large fortunes eager for landed investment ; 

d. the growth of a cheap slave supply. 

In some parts of Italy, of course, especially in the north, 
many yeomen held their places. But over great districts, only 
large ranches could be seen, each with a few half-savage slave 
herdsmen and their flocks, where formerly there had nestled 

1 See Davis' Readings, II, No. 38, for this process of the disappearance of 
the yeomen, and note the reference there also to violence by the rich. 



§492] DECLINE OF THE YEOMANRY 409 

numerous cottages on small, well-tilled farms, each supporting 
its independent family of Italian citizens. As a class, the 
small farmers, formerly the backbone of Italian society in 
peace and war alike, drifted from the soil. 

491. Emigration. — What became of this dispossessed yeo- 
manry, from whom formerly had come conquerors, statesmen, 
and dictators? Many had foresight and energy enough to 
make their way at once to Gaul or Spain, while their small 
capital lasted. In these semi-barbarous western provinces, 
for a century, a steady stream of sturdy peasant emigrants 
from Italy spread the old wholesome Eoman civilization and 
confirmed the Roman rule, while at the same time they built 
up comfortable homes or even large fortunes for themselves. 
But to Italy their strength was lost. 

492. A City Mob. — But a whole class of people could not be 
expected to leave their native land. For multitudes, lack of 
money, or sickness in the family, or other misfortune would 
make this impossible. Love of the homeland and mere custom 
would hold larger numbers. Thus the great bulk of the ex- 
farmers merely drifted to the cities of Italy, and especially to 
the capital. 

If Italy had been a manufacturing country, they might 
finally have found a new kind of work in these city homes. 
But the Roman conquests in the East prevented this. In the 
Eastern provinces manufacturing of all sorts was much more 
developed than in Italy ; and now Roman merchants found it 
cheaper to import Oriental goods than to build up a system of 
factories at home. Rome had become the center of exchange 
for the Roman world, but not a producer of wealth. It ceased 
to develop home resources and fed upon the provinces. Some 
increase in simple manufactures there was, of course ; but such 
work was already in the hands mainly of skilled Oriental 
slaves or freedmen, of which an ever growing supply was 
brought to Rome. 

Thus the ex-farmers found no more employment in the city 
than in the country. However willing or eager to work, there 



410 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC (§493 

was no place for them in the industrial system. They soon 
spent the small sums they had received for their lands, and 
then they and their sons sank into a degraded city rabble 
which became the ally and finally the master of cunning 
politicians, who amused it with festivals and gladiatorial 
shows, and who were finally to support it, at state expense, 
with free grain. The lines of an English poet, almost two 
thousand years later, regarding similar phenomena in his own 
country, apply to this Italy : — 

*' 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay ! " i 

493. Political Results: Decay of the Constitution — The eco- 

nomic changes, we have seen, had replaced the rugged citizen 
farmer with an incapable, effeminate nobility and a mongrel, 
hungry mob, reinforced by freed slaves. With this moral de- 
cline came political decay. The constitution in theory remained 
that of the conquerors of Pyrrhus and of Hannibal, but in 
reality it had become a plaything, tossed back and forth between 
lactions in the degenerate state. Old ideas of loyalty, obedi- 
ence, regard for law, self-restraint, grew rare. Young nobles 
flattered and caressed the populace for votes.^ Bribery grew 
rampant. Statesmen came to disregard all checks of the con- 
stitution in order to carry a point. 

494 Decay of the Assembly. — Indeed, had Rome kept all its 
old virtue, the old constitution would no longer have served 
good ends. It was outgrown. By the close of the Punic Wars 
Rome was a mighty city of perhaps a million people, and the 
mistress of an empire that reached from the Atlantic to the 
Euphrates. But she still tried to govern herself and her 

1 The student may find this interesting and important change in Italian 
life easier to understand by comparing it with the like change in England 
just before the time of Shakspere. There is a brief three-page account in 
West's Modern History, §§ 234 ff. 

2 Few were those who could defy the hissings of the mob as did the 
younger Africanus : " Silence, ye step-children of Italy^ Think ye I feai 
those whom I myself brought in chains to Rome I *' 



§495] DECAY OF THE OLD CONSTITUTION 411 

dominions by the simple machinery which had grown up be- 
fore 367, when she was a little village in Latium. To rule 
the larger Rome of 266 b.c , mistress of Italy only, had tasked 
this form of government and had shown some weaknesses. 
For its present task it was wholly unfitted. 

Nowhere did this show more clearly than in the Assembly. 
Rome was too large to decide public questions by mass meet- 
ing ; and it did not know how to invent our modern democratic 
machinery of balloting in small precincts, with such devices as 
the referendum and the recall. But there were other reasons, 
also, apart from mere size, why the Assembly failed. The new 
city mob controlled the four city tribes. The other seventeen 
of the older rural " tribes " (§ 365) were originally made up of 
small yeomanry near Rome. That class had mainly disap- 
peared ; and Roman nobles or bankers, who had bought up its 
lands, now made most of the voters in these tribes. To some 
extent, the like was true of the fourteen other rural tribes which 
had been added later (§ 386) and which were scattered up and 
down Italy. In these, it is true, the great majority of voters 
were still the small farmers — if only they could all be got to- 
gether at the Assembly in Rome. But this was almost impos- 
sible. Ordinarily the wealthy class of Italian landowners could 
control the votes of these tribes also. Thus the old stronghold 
of democracy in the government had been seized, for most pur- 
poses, by the aristocracy. 

495. Decline of the Senate. — Meantime the senatorial oli- 
garchy closed up its ranks still further. By custom, the 
lowest curule office, the aedileship, was so burdened with 
costly spectacles for the populace that only men of great 
wealth, or the most reckless gamesters, could start upon a 
political career. This was even worse than the undemocratic 
Greek practice (outside Athens) of paying no salaries to 
officials. Secure in their own fortunes, the nobles let things 
go at will, grasping for themselves the profits of empire, but 
shirking its responsibilities. Among the cowardly and dis' 
solute aristocrats there were noble exceptions ; but Mommsen, 



412 



THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC 



[§496 



who so generously applauded the Senate of 200 b.c. (§ 400), 
says of its successor eighty years later : — 

" It sat on the vacated throne with an evil conscience and divided 
hopes, indignant at the institutions of the state which it ruled, and yet 
incapable of even systematically assailing them, vacillating in all its con- 
duct except where its own material advantage prompted a decision, a 
picture of faithlessness toward its own as well as the opposite party, of 
inward inconsistency, of the most pitiful impotence, of the meanest 
selfishness, — an unsurpassed ideal of misrule." 

EVILS IN ITALY 

496. The distinction between citizens and subjects (§§ 388 ff.) 
was drawn more sharply. Admission to Roman citizenship from 




An Excavated Street in Pompeii. 



without almost ceased. New Latin colonies were no longer 
founded, because the wealthy classes wanted to engross all 
vacant land in Italy. Laws restricted the old freedom of 



§498] EVILS IN THE PROVINCES 41^ 

Latin migration to Eome, and confounded the Latins with 

the other " Allies." 

497. Roman Insolence toward " Subject Italians." — This sharp- 
ening of the line between " Romans " and " subjects " tended to 
create envy on one side and haughtiness on the other. Rome 
began openly to treat the " Allies " as subjects. They were 
given a smaller share of the plunder in war than formerly, 
and they were ordered to double their proportion of soldiers 
for the army. Roman citizens, on the other hand, had their 
old burdens lightened. Taxation upon them ceased wholly 
after the Second Punic War, when the Carthaginian "war 
indemnity " glutted the treasury. 

Worse than such distinctions was the occasional insolence 
or brutality of a Roman official. In one town the city consul 
was stripped and scourged because the peevish wife of a 
Roman magistrate felt aggrieved that the public baths were 
not vacated quickly enough for her use. In another, a young 
Roman idler, looking on languidly from his litter, caused a 
free herdsman to be whipped to death for a light jest at his 
expense.^ Such tyranny was the harder to bear because, more 
than Rome, the Italian towns had kept their old customs and 
old virtues. It was a poor return, in any case, for the Italian 
loyalty that had saved Rome from Hannibal. 

EVILS IN THE PROVINCES « 

498. The Provincial System and its Deterioration. — By 133, 

there were eight provinces, — Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, 
Hither Spain, Farther Spain, Africa, Illyria (which had been 
conquered after the third Macedonian War), Macedonia, and 
Asia. Cisalpine Gaul, Southern Gaul, and Greece were 

1 These incidents were stated by Caius Gracchus (§ 514) in the year 123, in 
his fiery pleas for reform. 

2Pelham, 174-186, 327-329; Arnold, Roman Provincial Administration^ 
40-88. On the governor's tyranny, Cicero's Oration against Verres, or the 
chapter on *' A Roman Magistrate *' in Church's Roman Life in the Bays of 
Cicero. 



414 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC [§499 

Roman possessions and were soon to be provinces. The 
growth of provincial government had been a matter of patch- 
work and makeshifts. There had been no comprehensive view 
of Roman interests and no earnest desire to govern for the 
good of the provincials. Both these things had to wait for 
the Caesars. At first, to be sure, the Roman administration 
was more honest, capable, and just than the Carthaginian 
or the Greek. But irresponsible power bred recklessness 
and corruption. Deterioration soon set in; and, before the 
year 100, it was doubtful whether the West had gained by the 
fall of Carthage. It took the Empire with its better aims and 
methods to dispel the doubt. 

499. Marks of a Province. — At the worst, existing institu- 
tions were everywhere respected, with true Roman tolerance. 
As in Italy, however, the different cities were jealously iso- 
lated from one another. As in Italy, too, there were various 
grades of cities. To most of them was left their self-control 
for purely local concerns, and some were, in name, independent 
*^ allies," with special exemption from taxes. But in general, 
the distinctive marks of a province, as opposed to Italian 
communities, were (1) payment of tribute in money or grain,^ 
(2) disarmament, and (3) the absolute rule of a Roman governor. 

500. Tax Farming. — Rome adopted for her provinces the 
method of taxation which she found in force in many of them. 
She did not herself at this time build up a system of tax col- 
lectors. She " farmed out " the right to collect taxes from 
each province. That is, she sold the right, usually at public 
sale, to the highest bidder. Of course, the Senate first fixed 
the proportion of produce or amount of money which each part 
of the province was to pay. Then the contractor, or " farmer," 
paid down a lump sum, and had for himself all that he could 
squeeze from the province, above that sum and the expenses 
of his agent. 

1 The " Allies " in Italy furnished men, but did not pay tribute. The posi- 
tion of the provincial cities was less honorable in Roman eyes, and it was 
more liable to abuse (§500). 



§501] EVILS IN THE PROVINCES 415 

The evil was that this arrangement constantly tempted the 
contractor to extort too much from the helpless provincials, — 
which was especially easy when the tax was collected "in 
kind.'* If an agent seized twice the allowed " tenth," it would 
be practically impossible afterward to prove the fact; even if 
there had been a fair judge to hear the case. But the only judge 
was the Roman governor of the province, who often was hand* 
in-glove with the contracting Roman capitalist, from whom, 
perhaps, he received a share of the plunder. The whole corrupt 
and tyrannical system was essentially the same as that by 
which Turkey has ground down her Christian provinces in 
southwestern Europe for five hundred years. 

501. The Governor. — The actual working of the whole pro- 
vincial system rested with the governor, and everything tended 
to make him a tyrant. He was appointed by the Senate from 
those who had just held consulships or praetorships, and he 
had the title of pro-consul or pro-praetor. His power over his 
district, even in peace, was as great as the consul exercised at 
the head of an army. He had no colleague. There was no 
appeal from his decrees. There was no tribune to veto his act. 
He had soldiery to enforce his commands. His whole official 
staff went out from Rome with him, and were strictly subordi- 
nate to him. 

The persons of the provincials were at his mercy. In Cis- 
alpine Gaul a governor caused a noble Gaul, a fugitive in his 
camp, to be beheaded, merely to gratify with the sight a worth- 
less favorite who lamented that he had missed the gladiatorial 
games at Rome.* There was even less check upon the gov- 
ernor's financial oppression. All offices were unpaid ; the way 
to them was through vast expense ; and the plundering of a 
province came to be looked upon as the natural means of re- 
paying one's self for previous outlay and for a temporary exile 
from Rome. Provincial towns were ordered by Roman law to 
supply the governor's table (including all his staif, of course). 

I See Davis* Readings, II, No. 37. 



416 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC [§502 

Under color of this, the governor often seized priceless art 
treasures (costly vases and statuary), as table ornaments, bring- 
ing them back with him to Rome. In short, the senatorial 
nobility passed around the provinces among themselves as so 
much spoil. 

502. The Trial of Corrupt Governors. — A governor might be 
brought to trial, it is true ; but only after his term had expired ; 
and only at Rome. Poor provincials, of course, had to endure 
any abuse without even seeking redress ; and in any case it was 
rarely possible to secure conviction even of the grossest offend- 
ers. The only court for such trials was made up of senators. 
Thus many of the judges were themselves interested in similar 
plunderings, either in person, or through a son or brother or 
cousin ; and with the best of them, class spirit stood in the way 
of convicting a noble. 

When other means failed to secure acquittal, the culprit 
could fall back on bribery. When a certain Verres was given 
the province of Sicily for three years, Cicero tells us, he cynically 
declared it quite enough : " In the first year he could secure 
plunder for himself; in the second for his friends ; in the third 
for his judges.'' 

503. The Provinces the "Estates of the Roman People.'* — It 
was not the senatorial class alone, however, who enriched them- 
selves from the provinces. All Rome, and indeed all Italy, 
drew profit from them. 

The state now secured its immense revenues from taxation of 
the provincials, and from its domains and mines in the prov- 
inces. The equites, organized in companies {" publicans ") or as 
private speculators, swarmed in by thousands, to conduct all 
public works with corrupt contracts, to " farm " the taxes, to 
loan money at infamous interest, and to rob the unhappy pro- 
vincials mercilessly in many other ways. The populace looked 
to the provinces for cheap grain and for wild-beast shows and 
other spectacles. 

" Italy was to rule and feast : the provinces were to obey 
and pay." And withal it was nobody's business in particular 



5 504J SLAVE RISINGS 417 

to see that these "farms of the Roman people" were not 
rapidly and wastef ally exhausted. 

SLAVERY 

We have now surveyed the three great evils mentioned 
in § 477. The fourth peril (the danger of barbarian inroads) 
can be best dealt with in the narrative to follow (§§ 523, 
547, etc.)- But Rome's most dangerous barbarians were in her 
midst; and a few words must be given now to the evils of 
Roman slavery. 

504. Extent and Brutal Nature.^ — In the last period of the 
Republic, slavery was unparalleled in its immensity and deg- 
radation. Mommsen is probably right in saying that in com- 
parison with its abyss of suffering all Negro slavery is but as 
a drop. Captives in war were commonly sold by the state or 
given away to wealthy nobles. To keep up the supply of 
slaves, man hunts were regularly organized on the frontiers, 
and some of the provinces themselves were desolated by kid- 
nappers. At the market in Delos ten thousand slaves were 
sold in a single day. 

The student must not think of slaves in ancient times as 
usually of a different color and race from the masters. The 
fact that they were commonly of like blood, and often of 
higher culture, gave to ancient slavery a peculiar character, 
when compared with more modern slavery. The slaves came 
in part from the cultured East, but they came also from the 
wildest and most ferocious barbarians, — Gauls, Goths, Moors. 
The more favored ones became schoolmasters, secretaries, 
stewards. The most unfortunate were savage herdsmen and 
the hordes of branded and shackled laborers, who were clothed 
in rags and who slept in underground dungeons. 

The maxim of even the model Roman, Cato (§ 506), was to 
work slaves like so many cattle, selling off the old and infirm. 
" The slave,'' said he, " should be alwc ys either working 01 

1 Beesly, The Gracchi, 10-14 ; Davis' Readings, II, Nos. 32-34. 



418 THE LATER ROMAN REPUBLIC [§505 

sleeping." With the worst class of masters the brutal Roman 
nature vented itself in inhuman cruelties. The result was 
expressed in the saying — " So many slaves, so many enemies." 
The truth of this maxim was to find too much proof. 

505. Slave Wars. — In the year 135 came the first of a long 
series of slave revolts. Seventy thousand insurgent slaves 
were masters of Sicily for four years. They defeated army 
after army that Rome sent against them, and desolated the 
island with indescribable horrors before the revolt was stamped 
out. Thirty years later, when Rome was trembling before a 
Teutonic invasion (§ 523), occurred a Second Sicilian Slave 
War — more formidable even than the first, lasting five years. 
Other slave risings took place at the same time. 

Another thirty years, and there came a terrible slave re- 
volt in Italy itself, headed by the gallant Spartacus. Sparta- 
cus was a Thracian captive who had been forced to become a 
gladiator. Escaping from the gladiatorial school at Capua, 
with a few companions, he fled to the mountains. There he 
was joined by other fugitive slaves and outlaws until he was 
at the head of an army of seventy thousand men. He kept 
the field three years, and for a time threatened Rome itself. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE GRACCHI 

{Attempts at Peaceful Beform) 

TIBERIUS GRACCHUS, 133 B.C. 

506. Attempts at Reform before the Gracchi. — The evils that 
have been described had not come upon Rome without being 
noted by thoughtful men. The chief needs of the state may- 
be summed up under two heads. First, the government needed 
to be taken from the incapable senatorial class and given to 
some organization that would more truly represent all classes 
of citizens. Second, the poor in the cities needed to be re- 
stored to the land as farmers. No attempt had been made 
to accomplish either of these things, but there had been one 
notable effort at another kind of reform. 

This was the work of Marcus Porcius Cato. Cato was a 
Roman of the old school, — austere, upright, energetic, patriotic, 
but coarse and narrow. From a simple Sabine farmer, he had 
risen to the highest honors of the state. He had been just old 
enough to join the army at the beginning of the Second Punic 
War, in which he fought valiantly for sixteen years from Trasi- 
mene to Zama ; and, half a century later, as we saw (§ 459), he 
had a chief part in bringing on the Third Punic War. Thus 
his long public life covered the period of chief Roman decline. 

Cato longed ardently to restore " the good old days " of 
Roman simplicity. As censor (195 b.c.) he tried in a way 
to bring back those days He repressed luxury sternly, and 
struck from the Senate some of the proudest names because 
of private vices. But he had no far-reaching views. He tried, 
not to direct the stream of change into wholesome channels, 
but to dam it. He spent his force foolishly in fighting the 

419 




ROMAN REPUBLIC: FALL [§50? 

ew Hellenic culture and the rising standard of comfort. He 
did not touch the real evils, or suggest any remedy for their 
causes. Indeed, instead of himself remaining a yeoman farmer, 
like the Manius (§ 409) whom he took for his model, he be- 
came the owner of great plantations worked by slave labor.^ 

For a time there seemed one other chance. After 146 b.c. 
Scipio Africanus the Younger was the foremost man in Rome. 
He was liberal, virtuous, cultivated. Many looked hopefully 
to him for reform. But though more of a statesman than 
Cato, he lacked Cato's courage. He shrank from a struggle 
with his order ; and when he laid down his censorship, he be- 
trayed his despair by praying the gods, not in the usual words, 
to enlarge the glory of Rome, but to preserve the state. 

Some slight reforms there were. For instance, the ballot 
was introduced into the Assembly, so that the rich might have 
less chance for bribery. But such measures did not reach 
the root of the disease of the state. The older statesmen 
were too narrow or too timid ; and the great attempt fell to 
two youths, the Gracchi brothers, throbbing with noble en- 
thusiasm and with the fire of genius. 

507. Tiberius Gracchus ^ was still under thirty at his death. 
He was one of the brilliant circle of young Romans about 
Scipio. His father had been a magnificent aristocrat. His 
mother, Cornelia, a daughter of the older Africanus, is as 
famous for her fine culture and noble nature as for being the 
" Mother of the Gracchi." Tiberius himself was early distin- 
guished in war and marked by his uprightness and energy. 
This was the first man to strike at the root of the economic, 
moral, and political decay of Italy, by trying to rebuild the 
yeoman class. 

508. The Agrarian ^ Proposals of Tiberius. — Tiberius obtained 
the tribune ship for the year 133, and at once brought forward 

1 The student should read Plutarch's " Cato " in the Lives. See, too, Davis' 
Readings, II, Nos. 33, 36, 37. 

2 Read Beesly's The Gracchi, 23-37. 

* '* Agrarian " refers to land, especially agricultural land ; from Latin ager. 



§5091 THE GRACCHI 421 

an agrarian law. It was simply the land clause of the obso- 
lete Licinian law in a gentler but more effective form. The 
proposal was threefold. 

a. Each holder of state land was to surrender all that he 
held in excess of the legal limit (cf. § 370), receiving in return 
absolute title to the three hundred acres left him,} 

b. The land reclaimed was to be given in small holdings 
(some eighteen acres each) to poor applicants, so as to re-create 
a yeomanry. And to make the reform lasting, these holders 
and their descendants were to possess their land without right 
to sell. In return, they were to pay a small rent to the state. 

c. To provide for changes, and to keep the law from being 
neglected, there was to be a permanent board of three commis- 
sioners to superintend the reclaiming and distributing of land. 

509. The Struggle. — Gracchus urged his law with fiery 
eloquence : — 

" The wild beasts of Italy have their dens, but the brave men who spill 
their blood for her are without homes or settled habitations. Their gen- 
erals do but mock them when they exhort their men to fight for their 
sepulchers and the gods of their hearths ; for among such numbers there 
is perhaps not one who has an ancestral altar. The private soldiers fight 
and die to advance the luxury of the great, and they are called masters 
of the world without having a sod to call their own." 

The Senate of course opposed the proposal, and the wealthy 
men, who had so long enjoyed what did not belong to them, 
cried out that the measure was confiscation and robbery. Tibe- 
rius brought the question directly before the tribes, as he had 
the right to do ; and the town tribes, and all the small farmers 
left in the rural tribes, rallied enthusiastically to his support. 
The Senate fell back upon a favorite device. It put up one of 
the other tribunes, Octavius, to forbid a vote. After many 
pleadings, Tiberius resorted to a revolutionary measure. In 
spite of his colleague's veto, he put to the Assembly the question 

1 This was generous treatment, and neither confiscation nor demagogism. 
It was further provided that an old holder might keep about 160 acres more 
for each of his sons. 



422 ROMAN REPUBLIC: FALL [§510 

whether he or Octavius should be deposed ; and when the vote 
was given unanimously against Octavius, Tiberius had him 
dragged from his seat.^ Then the great law was passed. 

510. Further Conflict. — At this time the last king of Perga- 
mum, by will, left his treasure to the Roman people.^ Gracchus 
proposed to divide the money among the new peasantry to 
stock their farms. He also proposed to extend Roman citizen- 
ship to all Italy. The Senate fell back upon an ancient cry: 
it accused hira of trying to make himself king (§ 362), and 
threatened to try him at the end of his term. To complete 
his work, and to save himself, Gracchus asked for reelection. 
The first two tribes voted for him, and then the Senate, having 
failed in other methods, declared his candidacy illegal.^ The 
election was adjourned to the next day. The end was not 
difficult to foresee. 

511. Tiberius murdered. — Tiberius put on mourning and 
asked the people only to protect his infant son. It was 
harvest time, and the farmers were absent from the Assem- 
bly, which was left largely to the worthless city rabble. On 
the following day the election was again forbidden. A riot 
broke out, and the more violent of the senators and their friends, 
charging the undecided mob, put it to flight and murdered 
Gracchus — a patriot-martyr worthy of the company of the 
Cassius, Manlius, and Maelius of earlier days. Some three 
hundred of his adherents also were killed and thrown into the 
Tiber. Rome, in all her centuries of stern, sober, patient, con- 
stitutional strife, had never witnessed such a day before."* 

512. The work of Gracchus lived. Partisanship ran so high 
that the whole aristocratic party approved the outrage, rather 
than abandon their champions to the vengeance of the people. 
Accordingly the Senate declared the murder an act of patriot- 
ism, and followed up the reformer's partisans with mock trials 

1 On the morality of this act, cf. Beesly's The Gracchi, 32, 33. 

2 Along with his realms ; see § 472. 
8 Read Beesly, 35. 

* Davis, Readings, II, No. 39, gives Plutarch's account. 



5 513] THE GRACCHI 423 

and persecutions (fastening one of them, says Plutarch, in a 
chest with vipers). 

It did not dare, however, to interfere with the great law that 
had been carried. A consul for the year 132 inscribed on a 
monument, that he was the first who had installed farmers in 
place of shepherds on the public domains. The land commis- 
sion (composed of the friends of Tiberius) did its work zeal- 
ously, and in 125 b.c. the citizen list of Rome had increased by 
eighty thousand farmers. 

This " back to the land " movement was a vast and health- 
ful reform.^ If it could have been kept up vigorously, it 
might have turned the dangerous rabble into sturdy husband- 
men, and so removed Eome's chief danger. But of course to 
reclaim so much land from old holders led to many bitter 
disputes as to titles; and, after a few years, the Senate took 
advantage of this fact to abolish the commission. 

CAIUS GRACCHUS (123-121 B.C.) 

513. Character and Aims — Immediately after this aristocratic 
reaction, and just nine years after his brother's death, Caius Grac- 
chus took up the work. He had been a youth when Tiberius was 
assassinated. Now he was Rome's greatest orator, — a daunt- 
less, resolute, clear-sighted man, long brooding on personal re- 
venge and on patriotic reform. Tiberius, he declared, appeared 
to him in a dream to call him to his task : " Why do you hesi- 
tate ? You cannot escape your doom and mine — to live for 
the people and to die for them ! " A recently discovered let- 
ter from Cornelia indicates, too, that his mother urged him 
on. 

Tiberius had striven only for economic reform. Caius saw 
the necessity of buttressing that work by political reform. 
Apparently he meant to overthrow the Senate and to set up 
a new constitution something like that of Athens under 
Pericles. 

1 Beesly, 39. 



424 ROMAN REPUBLIC: FALL [§514 

514. Political Measures, to win Allies. — The city mob Grac- 
chus secured by a corn laiu providing for the sale of grain to 
the poor in the capital at half the regular market price, the 
other half to be made up from the public treasury. Perhaps 
he regarded this as a necessary poor-law, and as compensation 
for the public lands that still remained in the hands of the 
wealthy. It did not pauperize the poor, since such distribu- 
tions by private patrons (especially by office-seekers) were 
already customary on a vast scale. It simply took this charity 
into the hands of the state. If Gracchus' other measures could 
have been carried through, the need for such temporary charity 
would have been removed. But, however well meant, this 
measure certainly introduced a vicious system of legislative 
bribery where in the end the well-meaning patriot was sure to 
be outbidden by the reckless demagogue. For the moment, 
however, it won the Assembly. 

The equites also Caius won, by taking the law courts from 
the Senate to place in their hands. 

515. Economic Reform. — With these political alliances to 
back him, Caius took up his brother's work. The land com- 
mission was reestablished, and its work was extended to the 
founding of Roman colonies in distant parts of Italy. Still more 
important, — Caius introduced the plan of Roman colonization out- 
side Italy. He sent six thousand colonists from Kome and other 
Italian towns to the waste site of Carthage; and he planned 
other such foundations. Tlie colonists were to keep fidl Roman 
citizenship. 

If this statesmanlike measure had been allowed to work, it 
would not only have provided for the landless poor of Italy : it 
would also have Romanized the provinces rapidly, and would 
have broken down the unhappy distinctions between them and 
Italy. 

516. Personal Rule. — Then Caius turned to attack senatorial 
government. To a great degree he drew all authority into his 
own hands. By various laws he took away power from the 
Senate, and himself ruled in its place. He had tried to pro- 



§517] 



THE GRACCHI 



425 



vide against his brother's fate by a law expressly legalizing re- 
election to the tribuneship, and he served two terms, virtually 
as dictator. 

"With unrivaled activity," says Mommsen, "he concentrated the 
most varied and complicated functions in his own person. He himself 
watched over the distribution of grain, selected jurymen, founded colo- 
nies in person, notwithstanding that his magistracy legally chained him 
to the city, regulated highways and concluded business contracts, led the 
discussions of the Senate, settled the consular elections ; in short, he 
accustomed the people to the fact that one man was foremost in all 
things, and threw the lax and lame administration of the Senate into the 
shade by the vigor and dexterity of his personal rule." 

517. Attempt to extend Citizenship to Italians. — Cains also 
pressed earnestly for political reform outside the city. He 




Temple of Apollo at Pompeii. 



proposed, wisely and nobly, to confer full citizenship upon the 
Latins, and Latin rights upon all Italy. But the tribes, jealous 
of any extension of their privileges to others, were quite ready 



426 ROMAN REPUBLIC: FALL [§518 

to desert him on these matters. The " knights " and the mer- 
chants, too, had grown hostile, from jealousy of the proposal 
to rebuild commercial rivals like Corinth and Carthage. 

The Senate seized its chance. It set on another tribune, 
Drusus, to outbid Caius by promises never meant to be kept. 
Drusus proposed to found twelve large colonies at once in Italy 
and to do away with the small rent paid by the new peasantry. 
There was no land for these colonies, but the mob thoughtlessly 
followed the treacherous demagogue and abandoned its true 
leader. When Gracchus stood for a third election he was 
defeated. 

518. Murder of Caius. — Now that he was no longer protected 
by the sanctity of the tribuneship (§ 363), the nobles, headed 
by the consul (a ferocious personal enemy), were bent upon 
his ruin. The chance was soon found. The Senate tried to 
repeal the law for the colony at Carthage. This attempt caused 
many of the old supporters of Caius to come into the Assembly 
from the country. Remembering the fate of Tiberius, some of 
them came in arms. The nobles cried out that this meant a 
conspiracy to overthrow the government. The consul called 
the organized senatorial party to arms, offered for the head of 
Gracchus its weight in gold (the first instance of head money 
in Roman civil strife), and charged the unorganized and unpre- 
pared crowd. A bloody battle followed in the streets. Grac- 
chus, taking no part in the conflict himself, was slain. Three 
thousand of his adherents were afterward strangled in prison. 

519. Overthrow of the Work of the Two Brothers. — The victo- 
rious Senate struck hard. It resumed its sovereign rule. The 
proposed colonies were abandoned, and the great land reform 
itself was undone. The peasants were permitted to sell their 
land, and the commission was abolished. The old economic 
decay began again, and soon the work of the Gracchi was 
but a memory. 

Even that memory the Senate tried to erase. Men were 
forbidden to speak of the brothers, and Cornelia was not al- 
lowed to wear mourning for her sons. One lesson, however, 



§519] THE GRACCHI 427 

had been taught : the Senate had drawn the sword ; and when 
a Marius or a Caesar should attempt again to take up the 
work of the Gracchi, he would appear as a military master, 
to sweep away the wretched oligarchy with the sword or to 
receive its cringing submission (chs. xxxiv ff.). 

"The net result of the work [of Caius] was to demonstrate the hope- 
lessness of any genuine democracy. . . . The two Gracchi, ... in their 
hope to regenerate Italy, were drawn on to attempt a political revolution, 
whose nature they did not realize. . . . They were not revolutionists, 
but they were the fathers of revolution. They aimed at no tyranny, but 
they were the precursors of the principate [Empire]." — How and Leigh. 



For Further Reading. — Ancient writer: Plutarch's Lives ("Ti- 
berius Gracchus" and "Caius Gracchus"); Modern writers: Beesly, 
The Gracchi, or How and Leigh, 331-359. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

MILITARY RULE: MARIUS AND SULLA (106-78 B.C.) 

520. The Biographical Character of Roman History in the Last 
Century of the Republic. — In earlier times Rome had been 
greater than any of her citizens. But after 14^6, the history of 
the Republic is summed up in a series of biographies, and soon 
the only question is, which man will finally seize the sover- 
eignty. This phase of the Roman Republic really begins with 
the younger Africanus and closes with Julius Caesar ; but it is 
with Marius and Sulla (halfway between) that the new charac- 
ter first shows without disguise, because these men were the 
first to carry political measures by the use of the army. 

521. The War with Jugurtha. — For some twenty years after 
the murder of the Gracchi, the Senate's misrule was undis- 
turbed. But a prolonged fourteen-year border war in Africa 
again revealed its corruption and incapacity in glaring light, 
and brought military masters to the front. 

Jugurtha, grandnephew of Massinissa (§459), — brave, 
crafty, cruel, — had made himself king of Numidia by the 
assassination of a series of princes dependent upon Rome. 
He bribed Roman investigating commissioners ; bought a con- 
sul w^ho had been sent to attack him ; and, being summoned 
to Rome after massacring thousands of Italians and Romans 
in Africa, he bought his acquittal from the Senate itself (Davis' 
Readings, II, No. 40). But an indignant tribune brought the 
matter directly before the tribes, and so stirred their indigna- 
tion that war at last was prosecuted in earnest. 

522. New Leaders. — Its progress revealed the utter corrup- 
tion of the army, but it finally called out two great captains. 
One was the rude soldier Marius, son of a Volscian day laborer, 

428 



§ 524] MAUI US AND SULLA 429 

who had risen from the ranks, and who by the votes of the 
people, against the wish of the Senate, was made consul to 
carry on the war. The other was his aristocratic lieutenant;, 
Sulla. 

By skill and good fortune, and by a daring exploit of Sulla's, 
Marius was able to bring the war to a close during his year of 
office. Jugurtha was captured. Marius was given a splendid 
triumph at Rome (January 1, 104 b.c). With characteristic 
Roman cruelty the captive king was dragged through the 
streets in chains at the wheel of his conqueror's chariot, and 
then cast into an underground dungeon to starve. 

523. The Cimbri and Teutones — Meantime a storm had broken 
upon the northern frontier. The Cimbri and Teutones, two Ger- 
man peoples, migrating slowly with families, flocks, and goods, 
in search of new homes in the fertile south, had reached the 
passes of the Alps in the year 113. These barbarians were 
huge, flaxen-haired, with fierce blue eyes, and they terrified the 
smaller Italians by their size, their terrific shouts, and their 
savage customs. 

A Roman consul who tried to entrap the strangers treach- 
erously was defeated and slain ; but, leaving Italy on one side 
for the time, the Germans crowded into Gaul. There they har- 
ried the native tribes at will, and, after defeating four more 
Roman armies (the last with slaughter that recalled the day 
of Cannae), they finally threatened Italy itself. At the same 
time the Second Slave War had broken out in Sicily (§ 505). 

524. Marius the " Savior of Rome." — Rome had found a gen- 
eral none too soon. Marius was just finishing his work in 
Africa. In his absence he was reelected consul — despite the 
law which required a candidate to appear in person and which 
forbade an immediate reelection in any case. The Germans 
gave him precious time, by turning for two years more into Spain. 
It was this unaccountable blunder that saved panic-stricken 
Italy. Marius used the interval in drilling troops and reorganiz- 
ing the army. Then, in the summer of 102, at Aquae Sextiae 
(Aix), in southern Gaul, he annihilated the two hundred thou- 



430 



ROMAN REPUBLIC: MILITARY RULE [§525 



sand warriors of the Teutones, with all their women and 
children, in a huge massacre (Davis' Readings, II, No. 41) The 
next summer he destroyed in like manner the vast horde of 
the Cimbri, who had penetrated to the Po. The first German 
nation to attack Rome had been given graves in her soil, and 
Italy was saved for five hundred years. 

525. Civil Disorder — In defiance of the constitution, Marius 
had been reelected consul each year while the peril lasted. 
Thus he had held the consulship five successive years. This 
began to look like a military monarchy. Perhaps it would have 
been well if Marius had made himself king. Or, better still, 
had he been enough of a statesman, he might have used his 
great power to secure the reforms needed by the Republic. He 
did not try to do either thing. 

He was given another consulship ; but he was as incapable in 
politics as he was great in war. The feeling between democrats 
and aristocrats ran high, and finally broke into street war (De- 
cember, 100 B.C.). Marius looked on while his radical frien^ls 




Th-kateb at PoMPEn. 



§528] MARIUS AND SULLA 431 

were massacred. Then he foand himself in disgrace with both 
parties ; and in chagrin he retired for some years into obscurity. 
Meantime another war brought to the front the other great gen- 
eral of the time, the champion of the aristocrats (§ 526). 

526. The Social War There had grown up in the Senate a 

small liberal party bent upon reform. Their leader was the 
tribune Drusus, son of the Drusus who had opposed the Gracchi. 
In the year 91, Drusus took up the Gracchi's work and proposed 
to extend citizenship to the Italians. He was assassinated ; and 
the nobles carried a law threatening with death any one who 
should renew the proposal. Then the Italians rose in arms and 
set up a republic of their own. 

Once more Rome fought for life, surrounded by a ring of foes. 
The Social War (war with the Socii, or " Allies '') was as dan- 
gerous a contest as the imperial city ever waged (91-88 b.c). 
Two things saved her. First : she wisely divided her foes by 
granting citizenship to all who would at once lay down their 
arms. Second: Sulla showed a magnificent generalship, out- 
shining Marius as the savior of Rome. Marius served with 
credit ; but he was disliked by the Senate and was suspected by 
all of favoring the demands of the Italians. 

527. All Italy enters the Roman State — The "Allies" were 
crushed, but their cause icas victorious. When the war was 
over, Rome gradually incorporated into the Roman state all 
Italy south of the Po, raising the number of citizens from 
400,000 to 900,000. The cities all became municipia, and their 
burgesses secured the full Roman citizenship. This was the 
most notable reform in the last century of the Republic. 

528. A New Reformer : Sulpicius — The Italian " Allies " who 
joined Rome in the war had all been placed in eight tribes. 
Thus, at most, they could influence only eight out of thirty-five 
votes, though they made half the citizen body. Now that 
many more Italians were to be enrolled, the popular party 
proposed to remedy this injustice and to distribute all the new 
additions among the thirty-five tribes. This attempt was the 
occasion for the brooding civil war to break forth. 



432 ROMAN REPUBLIC: MILITARY RULE [§529 

The tribune Sulpicius, a friend of Drusus, carried a law pro- 
viding for the distribution of the new citizens. In trying to 
prevent it, Sulla provoked a riot, from which he himself barely- 
escaped with his life through the aid of his rival Marius. Just 
before this, the Senate had appointed Sulla to manage a war 
against Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus. Now, fearing 
a military revolution, Sulpicius induced the tribes to give this 
command to Marius instead. 

529. Civil War — Sulla fled to his army at Capua; and, 
though all but one of his officers left him, he marched upon 
Rome. For the first time a Romayi magistrate used a regular 
army to reduce the capital (88 B.C.). After a brief but furious 
resistance, the unorganized democrats under Marius were scat- 
tered, and Sulla became the military master of the city. He 
repealed the Sulpician laws, executed a few democratic leaders, 
set a price upon the head of Marius, tried to buttress the 
Senate by hasty laws, and then departed for the East, where 
Roman dominion was rapidly crumbling. With grim irony, 
the head of Sulpicius was set upon the rostrum in the Forum, 
whence his lips had so often swayed the Assembly. 

530. Massacre. — On the departure of Sulla the democratic 
party rallied to undo his legislation. The aristocrats sur- 
rounded the Assembly with armed forces, and ruthlessly cut 
down ten thousand men, until the streets ran with blood. But 
the democratic leader Cinna escaped. He was welcomed by 
the Italians and the country tribes, and returned to besiege the 
city. Marius, too, came back from adventurous exiie,^ — a 
grim, vengeful, repulsive old man, with some thousands of 
freed slaves for his bodyguard. Rome was captured; the 
gates were closed ; and for four days and nights the senatorial 
party were hunted down and butchered by the desperadoes of 
Marius, despite the indignant pleadings of other democratic 
leaders, like the generous Sertorius. 

531. Marius and Cinna proclaimed themselves consuls, vnth- 

1 Special report : stories of Marius' hairbreadth escapes while in exile. 




§533] MITHRIDATIC WARS 433 

out even the form of an election. They then outlawed Sulla, 
repealed his legislation, and restored the Sulpician law regard- 
ing the Italians. In the midst of his orgy of triumph Marius 
died. Then Sertorius with regular troops stamped out the 
band of slave assassins ; but Cinna remained political master 
of Eome for four years. 

532. Sulla's War with Mithridates. — For thirty years th^ indo- 
lent Senate had looked on carelessly while danger gathered head 
in the East. Finally the storm had burst. The powerful states 
of Pontus, Armenia, and Parthia had grown into independent 
kingdoms, each of them, for long time 
past, encroaching upon Rome's protector- 
ates, l^^ow, Mithridates VI, king of Pon- 
tus, suddenly seized the Roman province 
of "Asia" (Asia Minor). The people 
hailed him as a deliverer, and joined him 
enthusiastically to secure freedom from the 
hated extortion of Roman tax-collectors A Coin of Mithri- 

DATES V !• 

and money-lenders. Eighty thousand Ital- 
ians, scattered through the province, — men, women, and chil- 
dren, — were massacred, almost in a day, by the city mobs. 
Then Mithridates turned to Macedonia and Greece. Here, 
too, the people joined him against Rome. Athens welcomed 
him as a savior from Roman tyranny; and twenty thousand 
more Italians were massacred in Greece and in the Aegean 
islands. Rome's dominion in the Eastern world had crumbled 
at a touch. 

This was the peril that had called Sulla from Rome. Out- 
lawed by the democrats at home, without supplies, with only 
a small army, he restored Roman authority in the East in 
a series of brilliant campaigns. Then he returned to glut his 
vengeance and to restore the nobles to power (83 B.C.). 

533. The New Civil War. — Italy was almost a unit for the 
democrats, but Sulla's veterans made him victor after a deso- 
lating two years' struggle. Toward the close of the war, the 
Samnites rose, for the last time, under another Pontius, and 



434 



ROMAN REPUBLIC: MILITARY RULE 



[§534 



marched straight upon Rome, "to burn the den of the wolves 
that have so long harried Italy." The city was barely saved 
by Sulla's forced march and desperate night-victory at the 
Colline Gate. 

534. Rule of Sulla. — Sulla was now undisputed master of 
Rome. At his suggestion, the Senate declared him permanent 

dictator^ (81 B.C.). 
His first work was to 
crush the democratic 
party by systematic 
massacre. Lists of 
names were posted 
publicly day by day, 
and any desperado 
was invited to slay 
the proscribed men 
at two thousand dol- 
lars a head. Sulla's 
friends were given 
free permission to in- 
clude private enemies 
in the lists. Debtors 
murdered their cred- 
itors. The wealth of 
the proscribed men 
was confiscated, and 
many a man's only 
offense was that he 
owned property which was desired by some follower of Sulla. 
" Unhappy wretch that I am," cried one gentleman who had 
stepped up unsuspectingly to look at the list and who found 
his own name there ; " my villa pursues me ! " 



HI ^^m 



Sulla, 



iThe old constitutional office of dictator had become obsolete ; the new 
permanent dictatorship of Sulla, and later of Caesar, is merely a name for a 
new kingship. 



§536] "SULLA THE FORTUNATE': 435 

When entreated at last by the servile Senate to let it be known 
when he would be through with slaughter, Sulla characteris- 
tically replied that he did not recall any more enemies just 
then, but that those whom he had forgotten would have to be 
included in some future proscription. Forty-seven hundred 
Romans of wealth and position perished. Even worse mas- 
sacres followed over Italy. At Praeneste alone, twelve thousand 
men were put to death in one day. Sulla thought he had 
stamped out the embers of the Marian party. Only Sertorius, 
the noblest Roman of the age, held Spain for the democrats ; 
and the youth Julius Caesar, a nephew of Marius' wife and 
the husband of Cinna's daughter, was in hiding in the moun- 
tains.^ 

535. Restoration of Senatorial Rule. — Sulla next set about 
reestablishing oligarchic rule. He enlarged the Senate to six 
hundred and by law made all officers dependent upon it. The 
tribuneship (whence had come all the popular movements) was 
restricted: no tribune could bring any proposal before the 
tribes, or even address them, without the Senate's permission. 
By various other changes the part of the people in the govern- 
ment was weakened. 

536. "Sulla the Fortunate." — After a three years' absolut- 
ism, Sulla abdicated, — to go back to his debaucheries, and 
to die in peace shortly after as a private citizen. He is a 
monstrous enigma in history — dauntless, crafty, treacherous, 
dissolute, licentious, refined, absolutely unfeeling and selfish, 
and with a mocking cynicism that spiced his conversation and 
conduct. He called himself the favorite of the Goddess of 
Chance, and was fond of the title " Sulla the Fortunate." No 
other civilized man has ever so organized murder. Few have 
had so clear a grasp of ends and made such unscrupulous use 
of means. 



1 Sulla had had Caesar (a boy of seventeen) in his power and had meant to 
put him to death. Finally, at the entreaties of friends, he spared him, ex- 
claiming, however, ** There is many a Marius hidden in that young fop.'* 



436 ROMAN REPUBLIC: MILITARY RULE [§536 

Apparently Sulla believed sincerely in senatorial govern- 
ment ; but he had striven against his age, and his work hardly 
outlived his mortal body. 



For Further Reading. — Ancient writers: Plutarch, Lives (" Ma- 
rius " and "Sulla"). Davis' Beadings, II, No. 42, contains Plutarch's 
story of Sulla's massacres. Munro's Source Book has good extracts from 
ancient historians on the Civil War and the Jugurthine War. 

Modem writers : Beesly, The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla ; How and 
Leigh, 360-449. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

POMPEY AND CAESAR, 78-49 B.C. 

537. General View. — The history of the next thirty years — to the 
rule of Caesar — has two phases, (i) In Italy, it is a question as to 
what leader shall become master. (2) Abroad, it is marked by Pompey's 
conquests and his organization of Roman dominion in the East to the 
Euphrates, and by Caesar's like work in the West to the Rhine and the 
North Sea. The rivalry for supreme power at Rome narrowed down to 
these two men, and happily victory fell to Caesar, incomparably the abler 
and nobler of the two. (Reread § 520.) 

538. Pompey and Crassus were two of Sulla's officers, who, 
by the death of their chief, were left in special prominence. 
Both, of course, belonged to the oligarchic party. Crassus 
was not only a soldier, but also a scheming man of business. 
He had built up the greatest fortune in Rome, by the purchase 
of confiscated property during the Sullan proscriptions. " Pom- 
pey the Great,'' with more honesty and good nature, was a 
man of mediocre ability, vain, sluggish, cautious to timidity, 
without broad views. Still, for twenty years, until the rise 
of Caesar, he was far the greatest power in Rome. 

539. Sertorius in Spain. — During the rule of Sulla, Spain 
had been the one remaining refuge of the democrats. While 
that party had been in power (83 B.C.), one of their leaders, 
Sertorius (§ 530), had been sent to Spain as governor. He 
proved a great general and a broad-minded statesman. His 
rule was gentle and just, and the Spaniards were devoted to 
him. In the brief time allowed him, he did much to advance 
the prosperity of the province and to introduce there the best 
elements of Roman civilization.^ Aided by the natives, he 

1 Special report : anecdotes of Sertorius. Read Plutarch's Life. 
437 



438 ROME: FALL OF THE REPUBLIC [§540 

had easily maintained himself against the officers Sulla sent 
to drive him out. 

540. Pompey's First Chance at a Crown. — Sulla had made it 
plain that the path to the throne lay through a position as 
proconsul in a rich province for a term of years, with a war 
that would call for a large army. Pompey had not yet held 
any of the offices leading to a proconsular appointment ; ^ but, 
upon Sulla's death, he compelled the Senate to send him to 
Spain against Sertorius, with an indefinite term and absolute 
powers (77 b.c). After some years of warfare, Sertorius was 
basely assassinated, and then Pompey quickly reduced Spain 
to obedience. In the year 71, he returned triumphantly to 
Italy. Meantime had come the rising of Spartacus (§ 505). 
This revolt had just been crushed by Crassus ; but Pompey 
arrived in time to cut to pieces a few thousand of the fugitives, 
and to claim a large share of the credit. 

Thus there were two generals in Italy, each at the head 
of a victorious army. The Senate feared both, and foolishly 
refused them the honor of a triumph. This led the generals 
to join their forces and ally themselves for a moment with the 
democratic leaders. Their armies encamped at the gates of 
the city, and the two generals obtained the desired triumphs 
and their election to the consulship. Then, to pay the demo- 
crats, they undid the chief work of their old master, Sulla, by 
restoring the tribunes and censors with their ancient powers. 

The crown was now within the reach of Pompey. He 
longed for it, but did not dare stretch out his hand to grasp 
it ; and the politicians skillfully played off the two military 
chiefs against each other until they agreed to disband their 
armies simultaneously. The crisis was past. Pompey, who 
had expected still to be the first man in Rome, found himself 
of very little account among the senatorial talkers, and, for 
some years, he sulked in retirement. 

541. The Cilician Pirates. — In 67, military danger called 
Pompey again to the front. The navy of Rome had fallen to 

1 It was customary to give such places only to ex-consuls or ex-praetors. 



§543] POMPEY AND CAESAR 439 

utter decay, and swarms of pirates terrorized the seas. They 
even set up a formidable state, with its headquarters on the 
rocky coasts of Cilicia, and negotiated with kings as equals. 
They paralyzed trade along the great Mediterranean highway. 
They even dared to ravage the coasts of Italy, and carry off 
the inhabitants for slaves. Finally they threatened Rome 
itself with starvation by cutting off the grain fleets. 

To put down these plunderers, Pompey was given supreme 
command for three years in the Mediterranean and in all its 
coasts for fifty miles inland. He received also unlimited 
authority over all the resources of the realm. Assembling 
vast fleets, he swept the seas in a three months' campaign. 

542. Pompey in the East. — Then Pompey's command was 
extended indefinitely in order that he might carry on war 
against Mithridates of Pontus, who for several years had again 
been threatening Roman power in Asia Minor. Pompey was 
absent on this mission five years — a really glorious period in 
his career, and one that proved the resources and energies of 
the commonwealth unexhausted, if only a respectable leader 
were found to direct them. He waged successful wars, 
crushed dangerous rebellions, conquered Pontus and Armenia, 
annexed wide provinces, and extended the Roman bounds 
to the Euphrates. He restored order, founded cities, and de- 
posed and set up kings in the dependent states. When he 
returned to Italy, in 62, he was the leading figure in the world. 

In his triumph, 324 princes walked captive behind his 
chariot, and triumphal banners proclaimed that he had con- 
quered twenty-one kings and twelve millions of people, and 
doubled the revenues of the state. Again the crown was 
within his grasp. Again he let it slip, expecting it to be thrust 
upon him.^ 

543. Cato and Cicero. — During Pompey's absence, new actors 
had risen to prominence. Three deserve special mention, be- 



1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 45, gives the account by Appian (§ 627) of Pom- 
pey's conquests and of his " triumph." 



440 



ROME: FALL OF THE REPUBLIC 



[§544 



cause they represent three distinct forces. Cato the Younger^ 
great-grandson of Cato the Censor, was a brave, honest, bigoted 

aristocrat, bent upon pre- 
serving the oligarchic Re- 
public. Cicero, the great- 
est orator of Rome, was a 
refined scholar and a rep- 
resentative of the wealthy 
middle class. He desired 
reform, and at first he in- 
clined toward the demo- 
cratic party ; but, alarmed 
by their violence and rude- 
ness, he finally joined the 
conservatives, in the idle 
hope of restoring the early 
republican constitution.^ 

Neither of these two 
men deserves the name of 
statesman. " Both," says 
a modern historian of Rome, " were blinded to real facts — 
Cato by his ignorance, Cicero by his learning." The third man 
was to tower immeasurably above these and all other Romans 
(§ 544). 

544. Qaius Julius Caesar was the chief democratic leader, and 
perhaps Ihe greatest genius of all history. He was of an old 
patrician family that claimed divine descent through Aeneas^ 
and his son lulus (Julius). His youth had been dissolute, but 
bold ; and he had refused with quiet dignity to put away his 
wife (the daughter of Cinna) at Sulla's order, though Pompey 
had not hesitated to obey a like command. In Pompey's 
absence he had served as quaestor and praetor, and he strove 




CiCKRO. 



1 Cicero has been bitterly accused of cowardly and shifty politics. Warde- 
Fowler's Caesar is sympathetic in its treatment. There is an excellent state- 
ment in Pelham, 247-252. 

2 A fabled prince of Troy in the Trojan War, the hero of Virgil's Aeneid. 



§5461 FIRST TRIUMVIRATE 441 

ardently to reorganize the democratic party. In public 
speeches he ventured to praise Marius and Cinna as champions 
of the people ; and in the year 64, by a daring stroke, he again 
set up at the Capitol the trophies of Marius, which had been 
torn down in the rule of Sulla. 

545. Conspiracy of Catiline. — Caesar had tried also to counter- 
balance Pompey's power by securing a province in Egypt; 
but his hopes had been dashed by a strange incident. One of 
the democratic agitators was the profligate Catiline. This man 
organized a reckless conspiracy of bankrupt and ruined adven- 
turers, like himself. He planned to murder the consuls and the 
senators, confiscate the property of the rich, and make himself 
tyrant. This conspiracy was detected and crushed by Cicero, 
the consul (63 B.C.). The movement was not one of the demo- 
cratic party proper. It belonged to the disreputable extremists 
who always attach themselves to a liberal party ; but the col- 
lapse reacted upon the whole popular party, and Caesar's plans 
were necessarily laid aside. The same year, his career seemed 
closed by Pompey's return, and he was glad to withdraw from 
Italy for a while to the governorship of Spain, which at that 
time had no army and was not an important province. 

546. The "First Triumvirate." — The jealous and stupid Sen- 
ate again drove Pompey into the arms of the democrats. It 
refused to give his soldiers the lands he had promised them 
for pay, and delayed even to ratify his wise political arrange- 
ments in the East. 

Pompey had disbanded his army, and, for two years, he 
fretted in vain. Caesar seized the chance and formed a coali- 
tion between Pompey, Crassus, and himself. This alliance is 
sometimes called the " First Triumvirate." ^ Caesar furnished 
the brains and obtained the fruits. He became consul (59 b.c.) 
and set about securing Pompey's measures. The Senate 
refused even to consider them. Caesar laid them directly 
before the Assembly. A tribune, of the Senate's party, inter- 
posed his veto. Caesar looked on calmly while a mob of 

1 For a caution regarding this term, see § 565, note. 



442 ROME: FALL OF THE REPUBLIC [§547 

Pompey's veterans drove the tribune from the Assembly. To 
delay proceedings, Caesar's colleague in the consulship then 
announced that he would consult the omens. According to 
religious law, all action should have ceased until the result was 
known. Caesar serenely disregarded this antiquated check, 
and carried the measures by the votes of the Tribes. Next 
he demolished the remains of Sulla's constitution. He had 
stepped into the first place in Rome. 

547. Caesar in Gaul — At the close of his consulship, Caesar 
secured command of the Gallic provinces^ for five years as 
proconsul. For the next ten years he abandoned Italy for 
the supreme work that opened to him beyond the Alps. He 
found the Province threatened by two great military inva- 
sions : the whole people of the Helvetii were migrating from 
their Alpine homes in seach of more fertile lands ; and a great 
German nation, under the king Ariovistus, was already en- 
camped in Gaul. The Gauls themselves were distracted by 
feuds and grievously oppressed by their disorderly chieftains. 

Caesar saw the danger and grasped the opportunity. He 
levied armies hastily, and in one summer drove back the 
Helvetii and annihilated the German invaders. Then he seized 
upon the Rhine as the proper Roman frontier, and, in a series 
of masterly campaigns, he made all Gaul Roman, extending his 
expeditions even into Britain. The story is told with incom- 
parable lucidity in his own Commentaries.^ 

548. Result to the World. — Whatever we think of the moral- 
ity of Caesar's conquests, they were to produce infinite good 
for mankind. Says John Fiske (an American historian) : 
" We ought to be thankful to Caesar every day that we live." ' 
The result of the Gallic campaigns was twofold. 



1 In 121 the southern part of Transalpine Gaul had been given the form of 
a province (§458). It was commonly known as The Province (modern 
Provence). 

2 Special reports: Caesar in Britain; revolt of Vercingetorix ; the Druids. 
8 Some students will like to read Fiske 's American Political Ideas, 

108-113, and Roosevelt's Winning of the West, III, 45-46 and 174-176, foi 



5549] FIRST TRIUMVIRATE 443 

(a) The wave of German invasion was again checked, until 
Roman civilization had time to do its work and to prepare 
the way for the coming Christian church. "Let the Alps 
now sink," exclaimed Cicero ; " the gods raised them to shelter 
Italy from the barbarians, but they are no longer needed." 

(b) A wider home for Roman civilization was won among fresh 
populations, unexhausted and vigorous. The map widened 
from the Mediterranean circle to include the shores of the North 
and Baltic seas. The land that Caesar made Roman (modern 
France) was, next to Greece and Italy, to form down to the 
present time the chief instructor of Europe. On the other 
hand, except for this work of Caesar, " our civilization itself 
would have stood in hardly more intimate relation to the 
Romano-Greek than to Assyrian culture." ^ 

549. Caesar and Pompey. — The close of the first five years 
of Caesar's rule in Gaul saw him easily superior to his col- 
leagues, and able to seize power at Rome if he chose. But it 
was never his way to leave the work in hand unfinished. He 
renewed the " triumvirate " in 55 B.C., securing the Gauls for five 
years more for himself, giving Spain to Pompey, and Asia to 
Crassus. 

Crassus soon perished in battle with the Parthians,'^ a huge, 
barbaric empire, then reaching from the Euphrates to the 
Indus. Then it became plain that the question whether Caesar 
or Pompey was to rule at Rome could not long be postponed. 
The Senate was growing frantic with fear of Caesar and his 
victorious legions. Pompey, jealous of his more brilliant rival, 
drew nearer to the Senate again, and was adopted by that ter- 

their justification of wars with savages as " the most ultimately righteous of 
all wars." The justification of Caesar's conquests in Gaul and Britain rests 
upon much the same basis as does the white man's occupation of the Amer- 
ican continents. The student should compare the Roman possessions after 
these conquests of Pompey and Caesar, east and west, with the territory as it 
stood before them. Compare the map on page 395 with that following 
page 488. 

1 Mommsen, V, 100-102, has an admirable statement. 

2 Special report : Crassus' campaign. 



444 ROME: FALL OF THE REPUBLIC [§549 

rified body as its champion. He was made sole consul with 
supreme command in Italy, and at the same time, his indefinite 
proconsular poiuers abroad were continued to him. 

Caesar' o£B.3e as proconsul was about to expire. He had 
finished his work in Gaul in the nick of time, and was free to 
take up even greater designs. He still shrank from civil war. 
He hoped to secure the consulship for the next year ; and he 
seems to have hoped, in that case, to carry out reforms at Rome 
without violence. Accordingly he made offer after offer of 
conciliation and compromise. All offers were rebuffed by 
Pompey and the Senate. To stand for consul, under the law, 
Caesar must disband his army and come to Rome in person. 
There would be an interval of some months when he would be 
a private citizen. The aristocrats boasted openly that in this 
helpless interval they would destroy him. Caesar finally offered 
to lay down his command and disband his troops, if Pompey 
were ordered to do the same. This, too, was refused. Then, 
by a series of acts marked by trickery and bad faith, the aris- 
tocrats tried to take away Caesar's army before the settled 
time. Finally they carried a decree that he must disband his 
troops before a certain day or. be declared a public enemy. 
Two tribunes vetoed the decree, but were mobbed, and fled to 
Caesar's camp. Civil war was at hand. 



For Further Reading. — Davis' Eeadings, II, Nos. 46-49, gives an 
excellent view of Roman political and social conditions during the First 
Triumvirate. 



PART V 

THE KOMAN EMPIRE (THE GEAEOO-ROMAN WORLD) 

Borne was the whole world, and all the world was Borne. 

— Spenser, Buins of Borne. 

Even noio a sovereign who should thus hold all the lands round the 
Mediterranean Sea, and whose borders should be the Bhine, the Danube, 
and the Euphrates, would be incomparably the strongest ruler in tht 
world. ... As has been often pointed out, when Borne ruled she was 
not only the greatest, but practically the only Power of which the states- 
man and the philosopher took any cognizance. 

— HoDGKiN, in Contemporary Beview, January, 1898, p. 63. 

Bepublican Bome had little to do either by precept or example with 
modern life; imperial Rome, everything. — Stille, Studies, 17. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

FOUNDING THE EMPIRE: JULIUS AND AUGUSTUS 
(49 B.C. -14 A.D.) 

THE FIVE YEARS OF JULIUS CAESAR (49-44 B.C.) 

550. Monarchy Inevitable. — From the time of the Gracchi, 
Rome had been moving toward monarchy. Owing to the cor- 
ruption of the populace in the capital, the tremendous power of 
the tribune had grown occasionally into a virtual dictatorship 
(as with Caius Gracchus and Sulpicius). Owing to the growing 
military danger on the frontiers, the mighty authority of a one 
year proconsul of a single province was sometimes extended^ 
by special decrees, over vaster areas for indefinite time (as 
with Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar). To make a monarch 
needed hut to unite these two powers, at home and abroad, in 07ie 
person. 

445 




ROME: FOUNDING THE EMPIRE [§551 

551. Caesar the Hope of the Subject Nations. — These two con- 
ditions (the corruption of the Roman citizens and the danger 
of barbarian invasion) made monarchy inevitable. A third con- 
dition made it right. This was the need for better government 
in the provinces, — far the greater part of the Roman world. 

Here is the merit of Caesar. There might have arisen a 
purely selfish despot. It is Caesar's honor that he, more than 
any other statesman of the time, felt this third need. He rose 
to power as the champion of the suffering subject-populations. 
He had come to see that in any case the only government for 
that age was one-man rule. But his special aim was to mold 
the distracted Roman world into a mighty empire under equal 
laws. From the champion of the city mob against an aristo- 
cratic ring, he had become the champion of wide nationalities 
against the same narrow clique and the mob of a single city. 

Already, as proconsul, on his own authority, he had admitted 
the Cisalpine Gauls to all the privileges of citizenship. In the 
midst of arduous campaigns, he had kept up correspondence 
with leading provincials in all parts of the empire. Other 
Roman conquerors had spent part of their plunder of the 
provinces in adorning Rome with public buildings. Caesar 
had expended vast sums in adorning and impromj^ provincial 
cities, not only in his own districts of Gaul and i^Rn, but also 
in Asia and Greece. All previous Roman armies had been 
made up of Italians. Caesar's army was drawn from Cisalpine 
Gaul, and indeed partly from Gaul beyond the Alps. The 
subject peoples were learning to look to him as their best 
hope against senatorial rapacity ; and the great body of them 
wished for monarchy as the only escape from anarchy and 
oligarchic misrule. 

552. Despotism a Medicine for Roman Decay. — To call Caesar right 
in his day, is not to call monarchy right in all times and places. No 
institution can be judged apart from the surrounding conditions. A 
"Caesar" in Rome in 200 b.c. would have been a criminal; the real 
Caesar in 60 b.c. was a benefactor. 

To say that monarchic government was the happiest solution possible 



$554] CAESAR*S FIVE YEARS ^-^^^ 

for Rome is not to call it an unmixed good. No very happy outcome was 
possible to the Roman world, which was destitute of representative in- 
stitutions and based on slavery. But a despotism can get along on less 
virtue and intelligence than a free government can. The evils that were 
finally to overthrow the Empire five centuries later had all appeared in 
force in the last century of the Bepublic, Ruin seemed imminent. The 
change to the imperial system restored prosperity and staved off the final 
collapse for a time as long as separates us from Luther or Columbus. 

The interval was precious. Under Roman protection, priceless work 
was yet to be done for humanity. But finally the medicine of despotism 
exhausted its good effect ; and the collapse, threatened in the first century 
B.C., came in the fifth century a.d. 

553. Caesar crosses the Rubicon: Campaign in Italy. — Plainly 
Caesar had not made preparation for civil war. He had only 
one legion v^^ith him in Cisalpine Gaul. The other ten (an 
irresistible force) were far distant. But the Senate had at 
last made him choose between civil war and ruin both to 
himself and to all his noble hopes for the Roman world. 
Promptly he chose war, and, in January, 49 b.c, he led hi? 
one legion into Italy. 

A Roman proconsul was strictly forbidden by law to bring 
an army into Italy ; and the story goes that as Caesar crossed the 
Rubicon — the little stream between his province and Italy — 
he exclaimed, " The die is cast ! " He never again looked 
back. With audacious rapidity he moved directly upon the 
much larger forces that ponderous Pompey was mustering 
slowly ; and in sixty days, almost without bloodshed, he was 
master of the peninsula. 

554. Spain and Greece. — Pompey still controlled most of the 
empire ; but Caesar held the capital and the advantage of Italy's 
central position. Turning to Spain, in three months he dis- 
persed the armies of Pompey's lieutenants there. Then follow- 
ing Pompey himself to Greece, in a critical campaign in 48 b.c. 
he became master of the world. The decisive battle was fought 
at Pharsalus in Thessaly. Caesar's little army had been living 
for weeks on roots and bark of trees, and it numbered less than 
half Pompey's well-provided troops. Pompey had his choice 



448 



ROME; FOUNDING THE ElMPlRE 



[|555 



of positions, and he had never been beaten in the field. It 
looked for a time as though Caesar had rashly invited ruin. 
From such peril he snatched overwhelming victory. 

The result is explained largely by the character of the oppos- 
ing commanders. Pompey, despite his career of unbroken 

success, was " formed 
for a corporal and 
forced to be a gen- 
eral"; while Caesar, 
though caring not at 
all for military glory, 
was one of the great- 
est captains of all 
time. Almost as 
much the armies dif- 
fered in real fighting 
power. Warde-Fow- 
ler's summary is mas- 
terly (Caesar, 299) : — 

"The one host was 
composed in great part 
of a motley crowd from 
Greece and the East, rep- 
resenting that spurious 
Hellenic civilization that 
for a century had sapped 
the vigor of Roman life ; 
the other was chiefly 
drawn from the Gallic populations of Italy and the West, fresh, vigorous, 
intelligent, and united in devotion and loyalty to a leader whom not even 
defeat could dishearten. With Pompeius was the spirit of the past ; and 
his failure did but answer to the failure of a decaying world. With 
Caesar was the spirit of the future ; and his victory marks the moment 
when humanity could once more start hopefully upon a new line oi 




PoMPEY — the Copenhagen bust. 



555. Remaining Campaigns. — Other wars hindered the great 
work of reorganization. Egypt and Asia Minor each required 



§555] 



CAESAR'S FIVE YEARS 



449 



a campaign. In Egypt, under the wiles of tlie voluptnous 
queen, Cleopatra, Caesar seems to have wasted a few months. 
He partly atoned for this delay by his swift prosecution of th© 




Julius Cabsab~= the Naples bust. 

war in Asia against the son of Mithridates. This campaign 
Caesar reported pithily to the Senate, " I came, I saw, I con^ 
quered." 



450 



ROME: FOUNDING THE EMPIRE 



[§ 556 



Meantime, Cato and the senatorial party had raised troops 
in Africa and called in the aid of the Numidian king. Caesar 
crushed them at Tfiapsus. Somewhat later, Pompey's sons and 
the last remnants of their party were overthrown in Spain at 
Munda. 

Cato, stern Republican that he was, committed suicide at Utica, after 
this defeat, unwilling to survive the commonwealth. His death was ad- 
mired by the ancient world, and cast an undeserved halo about the expiring 
Republican cause. More than anything else, it has led many later writers 
to treat Caesar as the ambitious destroyer of his country's liberty. The 
story may be read in Plutarch's Life of Cato. 

556. Policy of Reconciliation. — The first efforts of the new 
ruler went to reconcile Italy to his government. All respectable 




The Forum at Pompeii. 



classes there had trembled when he crossed the Rubicon, expect- 
ing new Marian massacres or at least a new war upon property. 
But Caesar maintained strict order, guarded property carefully, 
and punished no political opponent who laid down arms. 



§557] CAESAR'S FIVE YEARS 451 

Only one of his soldiers had refused to follow him when he 
decided upon civil war. Caesar sent all this officer's property- 
after him to Pompey's camp. He continued the same policy, 
too, toward the nobles who left Italy to join Pompey. On the 
field of victory, he checked the vengeance of his soldiers, call- 
ing upon them to remember that the enemy were their fellow- 
citizens ; and, after Pharsalus, he employed in the public service 
any Roman of abilityj without regard to the side he had fought 
on. * 

In Gaul, Caesar's warfare had been largely of the cruel kind 
so common in Roman annals ; but his clemency in the civil 
war was without example. It brought its proper fruit : almost 
at once all classes, except a few extremists, became heartily 
reconciled to his government. 

557. The Form of the New Monarchy. — For the most part, the 
old Republican forms continued. The Senate deliberated, and 
consuls and praetors were elected, as before. But Caesar 
drew the most important powers into his own hands. He received 
the trihunician power ^ for life, and likewise the authority of a 
life censor. He was already head of the state religion as Ponti- 
fex Maximus. Kow he accepted also a dictatorship for life and 
the title of Imperator for himself and his descendants. 

"Imperator" (from which comes our "Emperor' ) had meant simply 
" general," or " supreme commander." It suggested the absolute power 
of the master of the legions in the field. This power (the closest survi- 
val of the ancient imperium of the kings) was now conferred upon a civil 
of&cer in the city itself. Caesar's power really resulted from a union 
(§ 550) of the tribunician power in the city with the proconsular power over all 
the provinces. The title Imperator sums up this union, and indicates 
supreme authority throughout the empire. 

Probably Caesar would have liked the title of king, since 
the recognized authority that went with it would have helped 
to maintain order. But when he found that term still hate- 

1 Caesar was from an old patrician family, and so could not hold the office 
of tribune (§§ 308, 324). Therefore he devised this new grant of ** tribunician 
^ower," to answer the purpose. 



452 ROME: FOUNDING THE EMPIRE [§558 

ful to the populace, he seems to have planned this hereditary 
Imperatorship for the title of the new monarchy. 

558. Constructive Reform. — Caesar's reforms embraced 
Rome, Italy, and the provinces. A bankrupt law released all 
debtors from further claims, if they surrendered their property 
to their creditors,^ — and so the demoralized society was given 
a fresh start. A commission, like that of the Gracchi, was 
put at work to reclaim and allot public lands. Landlords 
were required to employ at least one free laborer for every two 
slaves. Italian colonization in the provinces was pressed vig- 
orously. In his early consulship (59 b.c), Caesar had re- 
founded Capua ; now he did the like for Carthage and Corinth, 
and these noble capitals which had been criminally destroyed 
by the narrow jealousy of the Roman oligarchy, rose again to 
wealth and power. Eighty thousand landless citizens of Rome 
were provided for beyond seas ; and by these and other means 
the helpless poor in the capital, dependent upon free grain, 
were reduced from 320,000 to 150,000. Beyond doubt, with 
longer life, Caesar would have lessened the evil further. 

Soon after the time of the Gracchi, it became necessary to extend the 
practice of selling cheap grain to distributing free grain, at state expense, 
to the populace of the capital. This became one of the chief duties of 
the government. To have omitted it would have meant starvation and 
a horrible insurrection. For centuries to come, the degraded populace 
was ready to support any political adventurer who seemed willing and 
able to satisfy lavishly its cry for "bread and games." To have 
attacked the growing evil so boldly is one of Caesar's chief titles to 
honor. His successors abandoned the task. 

Rigid economy was introduced into all branches of the gov- 
ernment. Taxation was equalized and reduced. A compre- 
hensive census was taken for all Italy, and measures were 
under way to extend it over the empire, as was done later by 
Augustus. Caesar also began the codification of the irregular 
mass of Roman law, created a great public library, built a new 

1 This principle has been adopted in modern legislation. 



§559] 



CAESAR'S FIVE YEARS 



453 



Forum, began vast public works in all parts of the empire, 
and reformed the coinage and the calendar. 

The Roman calendar had been inferior to the Egyptian and had got 
three months out of the way, so that the spring equinox came in June. 
To correct the error, Caesar made the year 46 ("the last year of con- 
fusion") consist of four hundred and forty-five days, and for the future, 
instituted the system of leap years, as we have it, except for c. slight 
correction by Pope Gregory in the sixteenth century. The reform was 
based upon the Egyptian system (§ 23). 




The Roman Forum To-day — looking south. 

559. The system of provincial government was made over. 
The old governors had been irresponsible tyrants, with every 
temptation to plunder. Under Caesar they became trained 
servants of a stern master who looked to the welfare of the whole 
empire. Their authority, too, was lessened, and they were 
surrounded by a system of checks in the presence of other 
officials who were dependent directly upon the Imperator, 
Soon the governors came to be paid fixed salaries, and were 
Dot allowed even to accept presents from the provincials. 



454 



ROME: FOUNDING THE EMPIRE 



[§560 



560. Wider Plans. — Even more important was Caesar's plan 
to put the provmces upon an equality with Italy. " As provinces 
they were to disappear, to prepare for the renovated Romano- 
Greek nation a new and more spacious home, of whose several 
parts no one existed merely for the others, but all for each 
and each for all."^ All Cisalpine Gaul ivas incorporated in 



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The Roman Forum To-day — looking north. 

Italy, and Roman citizenship was enormously multiplied by 
the addition of ivhole communities in Farther Gaul, in Spain, 
and elsewhere. Leading Gauls, too, were admitted to the Senate, 
whose membership was raised to 900. It was a strange thing, 
no doubt, to see the tall, fair-haired barbarians^ speaking with 
uncouth and almost unintelligible accent, intermingled on the 
benches of the Senatehouse with the proud Italian aristo- 
crats, even though the new members had laid aside the breeches, 
at which Rome jeered, for the white, purple-bcrdered togas 
of Senators. But Caesar hoped to make the Senate into a 



1 Mommsen, V, 415-417, also 427, 428. 



§561] 



CAESAR'S FIVE YEARS 



455 



Grand Council which would really represent the needs and 
feelings of the whole empire. 

561. The Unforeseen Interruption. — In a few months Caesar 
had won the favor of the Roman populace, the sympathy of 
the respectable classes in Italy, and the enthusiastic reverence 
of the provinces. He was still in the prime of a strong and 
active manhood, and had every reason to hope for time to 
complete his work. 

No public enemy could be raised against him within the 
empire. One danger there was : lurking assassins beset his 
path. But with characteristic dignity he quietly refused a 
bodyguard, declaring it better to die at any time than to live 
always in fear of 
death. And so, in 
the midst of prep- 
aration for expedi- 
tions against the 
Parthians and Ger- 
mans to secure the 
frontiers, the daggers 
of men whom he had 
spared struck him 
down. 

A group of irrecon- 
cilable nobles plotted 
to take his life, — led 
by the envious Cas- 
sius and the weak 
enthusiast Brutus, 
whom Caesar had 
heaped with favors. 
They accomplished 
their crime in the 
Senatehouse, on the 
Ides of March (March 15), 44 b.c. Crowding around him, and 
fawning upon him as if to ask a favor, the assassins suddenly 




Marcus Brutus. — A bust now in the Capito- 
line Museum. 



456 ROME : FOUNDING THE EMPIRE [§ 562 

drew their daggers. According to an old story Caesar at first, 
calling for help, stood on his defense and wounded Cassius; but 
when he saw the loved and trusted Brutus in the snarling pack, 
he cried out sadly, " Thou, too, Brutus ! " and drawing his toga 
about him with calm dignity, he resisted no longer, but sank at 
the foot of Pompey's statue, bleeding from three and twenty stabs. 

562. Caesar's Character. — Caesar has been called the one 
original genius in Roman history. His gracious courtesy and 
unrivaled charm won all hearts, so that it is said his enemies 
dreaded personal interviews, lest they be drawn to his side. 
Toward his friends he never wearied in forbearance and love. 
In the civil war young Curio, a dashing but reckless lieutenant, 
lost two legions and undid much good M^ork — to Caesar's great 
peril. Curio refused to survive his blunder, and found death on 
the field ; and Caesar, with no word of reproach, refers to the 
disaster only to excuse it kindly by reference to Curio's youth 
and to " his faith in his good fortune from his former success." 

No man ever excelled Caesar in quick perception of means, 
fertility of resource, dash in execution, or tireless activity. 
His opponent Cicero said of him : " He had genius, under- 
standing, memory, taste, reflection, industry, exactness." 
Numerous anecdotes are told of the many activities he could 
carry on at one time, and of his dictating six or more letters to 
as many scribes at once. Says a modern critic, " He was great 
as a captain, statesman, lawgiver, jurist, orator, poet, historian, 
grammarian, mathematician, architect." 

No doubt, " Caesar was ambitious." He was not a philan- 
thropic enthusiast merely, but a broad-minded, intellectual 
genius, with a strong man's delight in ruling well. He saw 
clearly what was to do, and knew perfectly his own supreme 
ability to do it. Caesar and Alexander are the two great captains 
whose conquests have done most for civilization. Both were 
snatched away from their work by untimely death. But Caesar, 
master in war as he was, always preferred statesmanship, and 
was free from Alexander's boyish liking for mere fighting. 

The seven campaigns in the five years after Caesar crossed 



§563] FROM JULIUS TO OCTAVIUS 457 

the Rubicon left less than eighteen months for reorganization, 
Even this short time was in broken intervals, between warSj 
while, too, the whole routine of ordinary government had to be 
taken care of. The new work remained incomplete ; and it is 
not always possible to tell just what Caesar planned to do. But 
that which was actually accomplished dazzles the imagination. 
Caesar's genius, too, marked out the lines, along which, on tha 
whole, his successors, less grandly, had to move. 

The murder was as imbecile as it was wicked. It struck the 
wise monarch, but not the monarchy, and left Caesar's work to 
be completed by smaller men after a new period of anarchy. 
There is no better way to leave " the foremost man of all this 
world," than to use the words of Mommsen: " Thus he worked 
and created as never any mortal before or after him ; and as a 
worker and creator he still, after two thousand years, lives in 
the memory of the nations — the first and the unique Impera- 
tor Caesar ! " ^ 

For Further Reading. — Specially suggested : Davis' Beadings, 
II, Nos. 50-54 (7 pages) ; and, on Caesar's constructive work, Warde- 
Fowler's Caesar, 326-359, or How and Leigh, 539-55L 

Additional : Davis' A Friend of Caesar (fiction) ; Plutarch's Lives 
("Caesar," " Pompeius," "Cicero") ; Warde-Fowler's Caesar. 

FROM JULIUS TO OCTAVIUS, 44-31 B.C. 

563. Flight of the Assassins. — Caesar's assassination led to 
fourteen years more of dreary civil war, before the Empire was 
finally established on a firm foundation. The murderers had 
hoped to be greeted as liberators. For the moment they were 
the masters of the city ; but, to their dismay, all classes (even 
the senatorial order) shrank from them. In a few days they 
found themselves in extreme peril. At Caesar's funeral his 
lieutenant and friend, Marcus Antonius (" Mark Antony ") was 
permitted to deliver the usual oration over the dead body. His 
artful and fiery words roiiised the popnlace to fury against the 

1 Mommsen's fine summary, V, 441-442, and, for Caesar's character the 
famous passage, pp. 305-314, should be read, if in the school library. 



458 



ROME: FOUNDING THE EMPIRE 



[§564 



assassins.* The mob rose ; all Italy was hostile ; and the con- 
spirators fled to the Eastern provinces, where Caesar had given 
governorships to some of them, and where the fame of Pompey 
was still a strength to the aristocrats. 

564. In the West, control fell to two men, Antonius and 
Octavius Caesar. Antonius, the orator of Caesar's funeral, was 

a dissolute, resolute, dar- 
ing soldier. Octavius was 
a grand-nephew and 
adopted son of Julius 
Caesar. He was an un- 
known sickly youth of 
eighteen, and at first he 
owed his importance 
wholly to his connection 
with the great dictator. 
Each party despised, or 
thought to use, "the 
boy " ; but he soon proved 
himself the shrewdest and 
strongest statesman of the 
empire. 

At first these two lead- 
ers were rivals, each pos- 
ing as the heir and suc- 
cessor of Caesar. By the shrewd policy of Octavius, however, 
they united their forces, and, to secure the West thoroughly, 
they took into partnership Lepidus, governor of Gaul and Spain. 

565. Second Triumvirate. — The three men got themselves 
appointed triumvirs'^ by the Senate (43 b.c). They were 




Octavius Caesar (Augustus) as 
A bust now in the Vatican. 



Boy. 



1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 53, gives Appian's account of this speech. The 
student may compare it with Shakspere's version in his drama, Julius Caesar. 

2 The term triumvirate is official in this use, while the so-called first trium- 
virate (§ 540) was an unofficial league, or ring, of public men. The trium- 
virate of 43 B.C. was a triple dictatorship; just ?^s the ancient decern virato 
|[§ 364) was a dictatorship of ten men. 



§567] THE SECOND TRIUMVIRATE 459 

given unlimited power for five years to reorganize the state ; 
and this dictatorship they afterward extended at will. 

The union was cemented with blood. To their shame, the 
triumvirs abandoned the merciful policy of Caesar. Their 
first deed was to get rid of their personal foes in Italy by a 
horrible proscription. Each marked off on the fatal list those 
whose deaths he demanded, and each surrendered an uncle, a 
brother, or a trusting friend to the others' hate. It was at this 
time that Cicero perished, abandoned by his friend Octavius to 
the hatred of Antonius. More than three thousand victims — 
all men of high position — were slain, and opposition in Italy 
was crushed. 

566. Philippi. — Meantime Brutus and Cassius had been 
rallying the old Pompeiian forces in the East. Their army 
contained troops from Parthia, Armenia, Media, Pontus, and 
Thrace. Octavius and Antonius marched against them. Again 
the East and West met in conflict, and again the West won — 
at Philippi in Macedonia (42 b.c). The " Republicans " never 
appeared again in arms. 

567. Actium. — Then Octavius and Antonius set aside Lepi- 
dus and divided the Roman world between themselves. Soon 
each was plotting for the other's share. The East had fallen 
to Antonius. In Egypt he became infatuated with Cleopatra 
until he lost care even for his military fame and sank into 
sensual indolence, with only fitful gleams of his old energy. 

Octavius was preparing to take advantage of this condition, 
when a pretext was made ready to his hand. Antonius be- 
stowed rich provinces upon Cleopatra, and, it was rumored, he 
planned to supplant Rome by Alexandria as chief capital. 
The West turned to Octavius as its champion. In 31, the 
rivals met in the naval battle of Actium off the coast of Greece. 
This was the third of the decisive battles in the establishment 
of the Empire : and, like Pharsalus and Philippi, it also was 
a victory for the West.^ 



1 Special report: death of Antonius and of Cleopatra. 



460 THE ROMAN EMPIRE [§568 

OCTAVIUS AUGUSTUS,^B.C.-14A.D. 

568. The Empire Established. — Actium made Octavius sole 
master of the Roman world. He proceeded to the East to 
restore order aud to annex Egypt as a province. On his re- 
turn to Rome in 29 B.C., the gates of the Temple of Janus 
were closed, in token of the reign of peace. ^ He declared a 
general amnesty, and thereafter welcomed to favor and public 
office the followers of his old enemies ; and, by prudent and 
generous measures, he soon brought back prosperity to long- 
distracted Italy. In 27, he laid down his office of triumvir 
(which had become a sole dictatorship), and declared the Re- 
public restored. The act really showed that he was absolute 
master and that the Empire was safely established. 

569. Under Republican Forms. — To be sure, Octavius him- 
self wrote (Monumentum,'^ xxxiv) : " After that time I excelled 
all others in dignity, but of power I held no more than those 
who were my colleagues in any magistracy." And indeed 
Republican forms were respected scrupulously. The Senate 
deliberated ; the Assembly met to elect consuls and the other 
officers of the old constitution. Bat, even in form, the Senate 
Pu once gave back to Octavius his most important authority 
in various ways,^ and, in reality, supreme power lay in his 
hands as Imperator,'' — master of the legions. This office 
Octavius kept, and the Senate now added to it the new title 
Augustus, which had before been used only of the gods. It 
13 by this name that he is thenceforth known in history. 

1 These gates were always open when the Komans were engaged in any war. 
In all Roman history, they had been closed only twice before, — and one of 
these times was in the legendary reign of King Numa. 

2 See References, page 464. The student must be on his guard in reading 
such *' sources " : Augustus' account is true to the letter, not to the spirit. 

8 There is an excellent statement in Pelham, 407-409. 

^Octavius, however, was so intrenched in popular favor that he did not 
need open support from the army. The legions were stationed mostly on the 
frontiers, far from Italy. Octavius did create a body of city troops, nine 
thousand in number, the praetorian guards, to preserve order at Rome ; butj 
during his rule, even these guards were encamped outside the city. 



5 569] AUGUSTUS, 31 B.C.-14 A.D. 461 

Augustus, however, carefully refused the forms and pomp 
of monarchy, and exercised his real control of the government 




Augustus. — Now in the Vatican. 

through disguised channels, instead of ruling openly as Julius 
had done. He lived more simply than many a noble and 
walked the streets like any citizen, charming all by his .rank 
courtesy. He preferred to all his other titles the name of 



462 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



(§570 



honor, Princeps (" Prince "), which was popularly conferred 
upon him and which signified " the first citizen " of the 
Republic. 

570. Character of Augustus. — In his early career Augustus 
had proven himself able, adroit, unscrupulous, cold-blooded. 
He had shrunk from no cruelty, and had been moved by no 
passion. But absolute power, which drives small men to 
frenzy, warmed this cold, unlovely schemer into something 
akin to greatness.^ He became an impartial and faithful ruler, 
and took up the work of the great JuVlus, though with a more 
cautious spirit. The remaining forty years of his life he gave 
to unremitting toil in strengthening the Empire and in improv- 
ing the condition of the people throughout the Roman world. 




Bridge built by Augustus at Rimini, — a towu on the Adriatic ten miles 
south of the Rubicon. The structure is still in perfect condition. 

571. The Augustan Age. — Augustus extended the bound- 
aries of the empire, especially on the north, to secure safer 



1 Read Capes, Early Empire, 6-9, if accessible. 



§ 572] AUGUSTUS, 31 B.C.-14 A.D. 463 

frontiers (§ 605). But his chief work lay in internal organi- 
zation. He organized the administration of the capital. A 
police department, a fire department, and a department for the 
distribution of grain, each under its proper head, were created, 
and the work of founding colonies outside Italy was renewed 
on a large scale. In like manner, the needs of Italy and the 
provinces received careful attention. Throughout the empire, 
peace reigned. Order was everywhere established. Industry 
revived and throve. Marshes were drained. Koads were built. 
A postal system was organized. A great census of the whole 
empire was carried out. The number of citizens was increased 
by about one fifth, and many important public works were 
carried through. 

Above all, out of the long century of anarchy, Augustus reared 
a new structure of imperial government (§§ 592-599), build- 
ing so firmly that even his death did not shake his work. For 
three centuries (until the time of Diocletian, § 662) his suc- 
cessors for the most part followed his general policy. He was 
also a generous and ardent patron of literature and art,* and the 
many famous writers of his reign (§ 626) gave splendor to his 
memory. In the history of Latin literature, the Augustan Age 
is synonymous with "golden age." The chief cities of the 
empire were adorned with noble buildings, — temples, theaters, 
porticoes, baths. Augustus tells us in a famous inscription 
that in one year he himself began the rebuilding of eighty-two 
temples, and of Kome he said, "I have found it brick and 
left it marble." 

The details of much of his work will appear more fully in 
chapter xxxviii. 

572. The Worship of the Dead Augustus. — At the death of 
Augustus, the Senate decreed him divine honors. Temples 
were erected in his honor, and he was worshiped as a god. 

1 In this patronage Augustus was imitated by many great nobles and espe- 
cially by his minister Maecenas, whose fame in this respect outshines even 
that of his master. Maecenas was the particular friend and patron of Virgil 
and Horace. 



464 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



l§ 573 



Impious as such worship seems to us, it was natural to the Ro- 
mans. It was connected with the idea of ancestor worship 
in each family, and with the general worship of ancient heroes, 
and was a way of recognizing the emperor as " the father of all 
his people^' The practice was adopted for the successors of 
Augustus, and this worship of dead emperors soon became the 
most general and widespread religious rite in the Roman 
world, as well as a mighty bond of union.^ 

573. The Birth of Christ. — In connection with the beginning 
of the worship of dead emperors, it is interesting to remember 




Church OF the Nativity at Bethlehem — on the site of the stable where 
Christ was born. 

the most important event of that splendid age. When tlicj 
reign of Augustus was a little more than half gone, there was 
born in a manger in an obscure hamlet of a distant corner of 
the Roman world, the child Jesus, whose religion, after some 
centuries, was to replace all religious faiths of the pagan world. 



For Further Reading. — On the work of Augustus: — specially sug- 
gested : Davis' Headings, II, No. 56 (a six-page series of extracts from Au 



1 Read Capes, Early Empire, 41-44= 



§573] 



AUGUSTUS, 31 B.C.-14 A.D. 



465 



gustus' inscription known as the Monumentum Ancyranum)^2,n^ No. 59 ; 
Pelham's Outlines, 398-406, or (better) Capes' Early Empire, ch. 1. 

Additional: Pelbi^rtn^ account of the Triumvirate {Outlines, 367-397) j 
Firth's J.wg'MsA^il » '' 

■ w)f REVIEW EXERCISES 

1. Catchword'review, 49-27 b.c. 

2. Review the growth of Roman citizenship from early times (see 

index) . 

3. Review the theme sentences at the heads of chapters in Roman his- 

tory up to this point, and note how they apply. 

4. Fact drills. 

a. List of important battles in Roman history, to this point, with 

results of each. 
h. List of Rome's wars after 390 b.c. 
c. Dates. Continued drill on the list given on p. 295. Fill out the 

following table, and group other dates around these: — 



510 (?) B.C. 

300 

367 

266 

218 

146 

133 

49 

31 



"Expulsion " of the kings. 
Sack of Rome by the Gauls. 

(Cf. 222 B.C. in Greek History.) 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

THE EMPIRE OF THE FIRST TWO CENTURIES, 31 B.C.-180 A D. 
AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 

{The Story of the Emperors) 

574. Treatment of this Period. —With the Age of Augustus the 
history of the Empire ceases to be centered in the city of Rome. Nor 
is it centered even in the emperors. Much depends, of course, upon the 
ruler ; but the great movements go on in a good deal the same way, 
no matter who sits upon the throne. Our study will not concern itself 
with court scandal. For the next three centuries our interest lies not so 
much in a narrative of any kind as in a topical survey of the institutions 
of the Empire, upon which, in large measure, modern society rests. 

Such a topical study is given in the next chapter. But, since it is 
convenient to refer to the reigns as dates, this chapter gives a brief 
summary of the emperors. This chapter is for reading and reference, not 
for careful study at this stage. In review^ after studying the topical 
treatment, important names and dates in this chapter may be memorized. 



THE JULIAN CAESARS 

575. Augustus, 31 B.C.-14 A.D. — The work of Augustus has 
been discussed, but a brief summary is added here. Augustus 

fixed the imperial con- 
stitution, establishing 
despotism under Repub- 
lican forms. He fixed 
the boundaries of the 
empire (meeting with 
a check from the Ger- 
mans in the defeat of 
the Teutoberg Forest, 

promoted prosperity, carried out 

466 




A Gold Coin of Augustus 



§ 605). He restored order. 



§ 576] AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 467 

a census of the empire, extended Roman citizenship, constructed 
many vast public works. His age was the " golden age " of 
Latin literature. He " found Eome brick and left it marble." 
During his reign, Christ was horn. To the end Augustus kept 
perfectly his chosen part of an uncrowned " first citizen." No 
doubt it was with gentle irony at this pretense, that he said to 
the friends about his death-bed — like an actor in the epilogue 
to a Roman drama — "If you think I have played well my 
part on the stage of life, applaud." 

576. Tiberius, 14-37 a.d. — Augustus was succeeded by his 
stepson Tiberius, whom he had adopted as his heir. Tiberius 
was stern, morose, suspicious; but he was also an able, con- 
scientious ruler. The nobles of the capital conspired against 
him, and were punished cruelly. The populace of Rome, too, 
hated him because he restricted the distribution of grain and 
refused to amuse them with gladiatorial sports. To keep the 
capital in order, Tiberius brought the praetorians (§ 569, note) 
into the city. He also made the law of treason (majestas) 
apply to words against the emperor, as well as to acts of 
violence; and he encouraged a system of paid spies. Such 
wretches sometimes invented plots, when there were none, 
so as to share in the confiscation of the property of the man 
they accused. So the people of Rome with some reason 
looked upon Tiberius as a gloomy tyrant. But in the prov- 
inces he was proverbial for fairness, kindness, and good govern- 
ment. " A good shepherd shears his sheep ; he does not flay 
them,-^ was one of his sayings. On one occasion, after a great 
earthquake in Asia Minor, he rebuilt twelve cities which had 
been destroyed there. In this reign occurred the crucifixion 
of Christ. 

The great authority for this period is the Roman historian Tacitus. 
But Tacitus is affected by the prejudice of the Roman nobles, and he 
paints Tiberius in colors much too dark. (Munro's Source Book, 140- 
150, gives extracts.) The worst cruelties of Tiberius' reign were due, 
too, to his misplaced trust in Sejanus, his minister and commander of 
the praetorians. For a time this infamous miscreant virtually ruled th© 



46S 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



(§577 



capital, while Tiberius, in disgust, withdrew to his beautiful retreat on 
the island of Capri, near the Bay of Naples, to manage the affairs of the 
empire at large. Finally Sejanus plotted against the life of Tiberius, 
and was himself put to death. 

577. Caligula, 37-41. — In the absence of nearer heirs, 
Tiberius adopted his grandnephew Caligula. This prince 
had been a promising youth, but, crazed by power, or by a 
serious illness, he became a capricious madman, with gleams 
of ferocious humor. " Would that the Romans had all one 




Ruins of the Claudian Aqueduct. 

Near Rome ; from a photograph. See also the same in the view of the Appiai\ 

Way, on page 344. 

neck ! " he exclaimed, wishing that he might behead them all 
at one stroke. His deeds were a series of crimes and ex- 
travagant follies. The gladiatorial shows and the wild-beast 
fights of the amphitheater fascinated him strangely. It is 
said that sometimes, to add to the spectacle, he ordered 
spectators to be thrown to the animals, and he entered the 



1579] 



AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 



469 



arena himself as a gladiator, to win the applause of the people 
whom he hated. After four years, he was slain by officers of 
his guard, — the only way to rid the world of an insane 
monster. 

578. Claudius, 41-54. — Caligula had named no successor. 
For a moment the Senate hoped to restore the old Republic ; 
but the praetorians (devoted to the great Julian line) set up as 
emperor Claudius, the uncle of Caligula. Claudius had been 
a timid, gentle, awkward, well-meaning scholar and an author 
of several tiresome books. He ruled, in a large measure, 
through two of his freedmen, who committed many crimes 
and heaped up huge fortunes for themselves, but who were 
capable administrators. Claudius himself gave his time 
faithfully to the hard work of governing, with fairly good 
results. His reign is famous for a g7'eat extension of citizen- 
ship to provincials and for legislation to protect slaves against 
cruel masters.^ The Roman conquest of southern Britain took 
place in this reign (§ 606).^ 

679. Nero (54-68), Claudius' stepson, became emperor as 
a likeable boy of sixteen. He had been trained by the philoso- 
pher Seneca (§ 627), and for two 
thirds of his reign he was ruled by 
this great thinker and by other wise 
ministers. The young emperor cared 
little for affairs of government, but 
was fond of art, and ridiculously 
vain of his skill in music and poetry. 
After some years his fears, together 
with a total lack of principle, led 
him to crime and tyranny. He poi- 
soned his half-brother, and had his 
ambitious mother murdered. 
Wealthy nobles were put to death 
in numbers, and their property confiscated, Seneca himself be- 




Bronze Coin of Nero — to 
commemorate the closing of 
the doors of the Temple of 
Janus (cf. § 568). 



1 Mmiro, Source Book, 187. 



2 Special report. 



470 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



[§579 



ing among the victims. Like Caligula, Nero entered the lists 
as a gladiator, and he sought popular applause also for his 
music and dancing. 

During this reign, half of Rome was laid in ashes by the 
"Great Fire.''^ For six days and nights the flames raged 

unchecked, surging in 
billows over the slopes 
and through the valleys 
of the Seven Hills. By 
some, Nero was believed 
to have ordered the de- 
struction, in order that 
he might rebuild in more 
magnificent fashion. On 
better authority he was 
reported to have enjoyed 
the spectacle from the 
roof of his palace, with 
music and dancing, sing- 
ing meanwhile a poem 
he had composed on the 
^ Burning of Troy.'' 
The new sect of Chris- 
tians also were accused of starting the fire, out of their sup- 
posed "hatred for the human race." To many, some color 
was given to the accusation by the talk of the Christians about 
an approaching destruction of the world. To turn attention 
from himself, Nero took up the charge, and carried out the j^rs^ 
persecution of the Christians (§ 654), one of the most cruel in all 
history. Victims, tarred with pitch, were burned as torches in 
the imperial gardens, to light the indecent revelry of the court 
at night ; and others, clothed in the skins of animals, were torn 
by dogs for the amusement of the mob. The persecution, how- 
ever, was confined to the capital, and was not religious in purpose. 




AGRiPPiNA — mother of NerOc 



1 Davis' Readings, II. No. 65. 



§581] 



AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 



471 



Nero sank deeper and deeper in vice and crime. Except for 
the disgrace, his capricious tyranny did not reach far beyond 
the city of Rome; but finally the legions in the provinces 
revolted. The tyrant was deserted by all, and the Senate con- 
demned him to death. To avoid capture he stabbed himself, 
exclaiming, " What a pity for such an artist to die ! " 



THE FLAVIAN CAESAKS 

580. The year 69 was one of wild confusion. The legions in 
Spain had proclaimed their general Galha emperor. Galba was 
soon thrust from the throne by Otlio, supported by the praeto- 
rians. Otho, in turn, was overthrown by Vitellius, at the head 
of the army of the Rhine. Then the legions in Syria pro- 
claimed their general. Flavins Vespasianus (Vespasian). From 
his name Flavins, he and his two sons are known as the 
Flaviaji emperors. 

581. Vespasian (70-79) was the grandson of a Sabine laborer. 
He was a rude soldier, — stumpy in build, blunt in manner, 




The Coliseum {Flavian Amphitheater) To-day (§ 622) . 



472 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



:i§ 582 



homely in tastes, but honest, industrionis, experienced, and 
broad-minded. He had distinguished himself in Britain and 
in Asia, and he knew the needs of the empire. He quickly- 
made himself master, and brought to an end the disorder into 
which Nero's misrule had plunged the state. His reign was 
economical and thrifty, and was notable as an era of great 
public works and magnificent buildings (§ 622). He loved 
simple manners and homely virtues, and hated shams. So, at 
the end, as he felt the hand of death upon him, he said, with 
grim irony, " I think I am becoming a god,'' — in allusion to 
the fact that dead emperors were worshiped as divinities. 

582. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem was the most 
striking event in Vespasian's reign. The kingdom of the 
Jews, which the heroic Maccabees established (§ 467), had been 
made a tributary state by Pompey, during his Eastern wars, 




Detail t hum the Triumphal arch of Titus — showing the seven-branched 
candlestick taken from the Temple at Jerusalem. 

in the year 63 b.c. From 40 b.c. to 4 a.d. the tributary ruler 
was Herod the Great, who was bitterly hated by the people. 



§583] 



AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 



473 



After his death, Judea became a Eoman province, but the Jews 
■were restless under foreign rule. The question pressed upon 
Jesus — whether it were *' lawful" to pay tribute to Caesar — 
was a matter of constant agitation ; and in the year 66, in 
Nero's time, a national uprising drove out the Roman officers. 

Nero sent his general Vespasian with three legions to put 
down this revolt. Vespasian reduced the many hill fortresses 
of the country in the next two years, and was about to lay 
siege to Jerusalem, when the disorders of the year 69, and the 
struggle for the Empire, called him to Italy. In the year 70 
A.D., his oldest son,Titus, besieged and destroyed the city. He 
had made many liberal offers of terms for surrender to the 
starving citizens ; but the desperate Jews made a frenzied re- 
sistance, and when the walls were finally stormed, many of 
them slew their women and children and died in the flames. 
The miserable remnant for the most part were sold into slav- 
ery, and they have remained a dispersed peculiar people to this 
day. 

583. Titus (79-81) had been associated in the government 
with his father. His kindness and indulgence toward all 
classes made him the most popular of all the emperors. Once 
at supper, not able to remem- 
ber that he had made any one 
happy during the day, he ex- 
claimed, " I have lost a day ! " 

The most famous event of 
his two years' reign was the 
destruction of Pomjjeii and 
Herculaneum, The volcano 
Vesuvius was believed extinct, 
and its slopes were covered 
with villas and vineyards. 
With little warning it belched 
forth in terrible eruption, 
burying two cities and many 
villages in ashes and volcanic mud 



't??"" ^''''' r^Mt.Ves..!us 
Puteoli -"^^^^ 




Vicinity of the Bay of Naples. 



In the eighteenth century, 



474 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



I§584 



by the chance digging of a well, the site of Pompeii, the largest 
of the two cities, was rediscovered. In recent years it has been 
excavated ; and to-day a visitor can walk through the streets of 
an ancient city, viewing perfectly perserved houses, shops, 
temples, baths, theaters, ornaments, and utensils of the men of 
eighteen hundred years ago, just as they chanced to stand 
when the volcanic ashes and lava flood came upon them.^ 

584. Domitian (81-96), younger brother of Titus, was a strong, 
stern ruler. His general Agricola completed the conquest of 

Britain to the highlands of Caledonia 
(Scotland). The southern part of the 
island was now to enjoy a long peace. 
Roman roads were built ; camps grew 
into rich cities ; merchants thronged 
to them ; the country was dotted with 
beautiful villas. Britain became a 
Roman province with Roman civiliza- 
tion. To protect the southern dis- 
tricts against the inroads of the un- 
conquered highlanders, Agricola built 
a line of fortresses from the Eorth to 
the Clyde. 
At home, Domitian reduced the power of the Senate, disregard- 
ing the threadbare pretense of a joint rule by Senate and 
Princeps. He took the office of Censor for life, and so could 
legally make and unmake senators at will. This power was 
retained by his successors, even when it was not used ; and 
Domitian's reign therefore marks an important change toward 
the outward form of monarchy. 

These facts led the Roman nobles to conspire against him. 
He put down their plots with cruelty, earning from their sym- 
pathizers the name of tyrant. Finally he was assassinated by 
members of his household. In this reign took place the second 
persecution of the Christians. 

1 Several illustrations of ancient life, as revealed by excavations at Pompeii, 
have been given in preceding pages. 




Coin of Domitian— struck 
to commemorate the 
completion of the Coli- 
seum. 



§587] AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 475 

THE ANTONINE CAESAES 

585. Nerva (96-98). — The Senate chose the next ruler from 
its own number ; and that emperor with his four successors gov- 
erned in harmony with it. These princes are known as the^-ue 
good emperors. The first of the five was Nerva, an aged sena- 
tor of Spanish descent, who died after a kindly rule of sixteen 
months. 

586. Trajan (98-117 a.d.) was the adopted son of Nerva. 
He was a Sptaniard by birth and a great general. Once more 
the boundaries of the empire were advanced, though with 
doubtful wisdom (§ 606). Trajan conquered Dacia, a vast dis- 
trict north of the Danube, and then attacked the Parthians in 
Asia. That power was humbled, and new provinces were added 
beyond the Euphrates. These victories mark the greatest extent 
of the Roman empire. 

Trajan's reign was the most famous in Roman history for the 
construction of roads and other useful public works throughout the 
provinces. Despite his wars, his rule was humane as well as 
just. By loans from the treasury, he encouraged the cities of 
Italy to care for and educate many thousands of poor children,^ 
and slaves were protected by strict laws against cruelty. A 
slight persecution of Christians took place under this emperor. 

587. Hadrian, a Spanish kinsman of Trajan, succeeded him 
(117-138 A.D.). He was a wise and prudent man, and his rule 
was one of general reorganization. He reformed the army and 
strengthened its discipline, and at the same time he looked to 
the fortification of the exposed frontiers. His most famous 
work of this kind was the wall (Hadrian's Wall) in Britain, 
from the Solway to the Tyne, to replace the less satisfactory 
wall of Agricola, farther to the north. Wisely and coura- 
geously, he abandoned most of Trajan's conquests in Asia (dis- 
regarding the sneers and murmurs of nobles and populace), and 
withdrew the frontier there to the old line of the Euphrates. 

J Capes' Antonines, 19-21, gives the details. 



476 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



[§587 



Hadrian spent most of his twenty years' rule in inspecting 
the provinces. Now he is in Britain, now in Dacia ; again in 
Gaul, or in Africa. Syria and Egypt were both visited. He 
spent several months in Asia Minor, and in Macedonia ; and 
twic3 he visited Athens, liis favorite city, which he adorned with 
splendid buildings. Indeed, everywhere memorials of his stay 
3prang up in useful public works, — aqueducts, baths, schoolsj 




Ruins of the Temple of Zeus built by Hadrian at Athens. — Note 
the Corinthian architecture (§ 154) , 

basilicas (§ 623), highways, temples. Hadrian organized the 
civil service of the empire, — the whole body of officers who 
carried on the administration. Every emperor, necessarily, 
had been surrounded by assistants and advisers ; and sometimes 
these had been vicious adventurers or greedy freedmen. The 
nobles had felt it beneath their dignity to take regular office 
as secretary to a "Princeps." But Hadrian brought nobles 
and " knights " (§ 480) into such public service, and built up 
a body of trained public servants, who thereafter continued 



^^m 



AUGUSTUS to AURfiLItrS 



477 



from reign to reign, with definite customs and ideals of gov- 
ernment. In particular, Hadrian brought together the heads 
of important administrative divisions into a true Privy Council, 
to advise and inform the Emperor. 

Among the Emperor's varied accomplishments was the ability 
to write graceful verse. The lines he addressed to his soul 
as he felt death approach, are true poetry : — 

" Soul of mine, pretty one, flitting one, 
Guest and partner of my clay. 
Whither wilt thou hie away, 
Pallid one, rigid one, naked one, — 
Never to play again, never to play ? " 



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**W«T" 1 



The Tomb of Hadrian, 

588. Antoninus Pius, 1 38-161 a.d., who had been adopted by 
Hadrian, was his successor. His reign was singularly peaceful 
and uneventful, and might well have given rise to the saying, 
"Happy the people whose annals are meager." Antoninus 
himsslf was a pure and gentle spirito The chief feature of 



478 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 



58S 



his rule was legislation to prevent cruelty to slaves and to lessen 
suffering. 

On the evening of his death, when asked by the officer of 
the guard for the watchword for the night, he gave the word 
Equanimity, which might have served as the motto of his 
life. His adopted son wrote of him : " He was ever prudent 




Marcus Aurelius. 



§590] AUGUSTUS TO AURELIUS 479 

and temperate. ... He looked to his duty, and not to the 
opinion of men. . . . There was in his life nothing harsh, 
nothing excessive, nothing overdone." (Davis' Readings, II, 
No. 69, gives two pages of this noble tribute.) 

589. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (i6i-i8o), nephew and 
adopted son of Antoninus Pius, was the next emperor. He was 
a philosopher and student. He belonged to the Stoic school 
(§ 317), but in him that stern philosophy, without losing its 
lofty tone, was softened by a gracious gentleness. His Thoughts 
(§ 628) is one of the world's noblest books, deeply religious, and 
closer to the spirit of Christ than any other writing of the 
pagan world. 

The tastes of Marcus Aurelius made him wish to continue 
in his father's footsteps, but he had fallen upon harsher times. 
The barbarians renewed their attacks upon the Danube, the 
Rhine, and the Euphrates. The Emperor and his lieutenants 
beat them back, but at the cost of almost incessant war ; and 
the gentle philosopher lived and wrote and died in camp, on 
the frontiers. A great Asiatic plague, too, swept over the empire. 
Not only did it cause terrible loss of life : it also demoralized 
society. The populace thought the disease a visitation from 
offended gods, and, in many parts of the empire, they were 
frantically excited against the unpopular sect of Christians who 
refused to worship the gods of Eome. Thus the reign of the 
kindly Aurelius was marked by 
a cruel persecution. 

Bury writes : "To come to the aid 
of the weak, to mitigate the lot of 
slaves, to facilitate manumission, to 
protect wards, were the objects of 
Marcus as of his predecessor. " Says 
Merivale, " Tht; blameless career of 
these illustrious princes has furnished 
the best excuse for Caesarism in all 
after ages." 

590. Commodus, 180-192 AD. — p,^, „ . 

^ Commodus. — From a coin of 

The "five good emperors" end with 192 a.d. 




480 THE ROMAN EMPIRE [§591 

Marcus Aurelius. His son, Commodus, was an infamous wretch who 
repeated the crimes and follies of the worst of his predecessors. He was 
'anally murdered by his officers. 

591. Summary 31 B.C.-192 AD. — This first long period of 224 
years was an age of settled government and regular succession, except 
for two or three slight disturbances and for the disorders of the one ter- 
rible year 69, at the close of Nero's reign. That brief anarchy subdivides 
the period into nearly equal parts. The five Julian emperors (Romans 
and related to the great Julius) covered just a century. After the three 
Flavians (Italians) came the six Antonines,i who also covered nearly a 
hundred years. They were provincials. The majority of the fourteen 
rulers were good men. Nearly all were good rulers. The few tyrants 
had short reigns, and their cruelties did not much affect the empire out- 
side the capital city. 

1 This name (from Antoninus Pius) is sometimes applied to this entire group, 
from Nerva to Commodus. 



CHAPTER XXXVIIl 

THE EMPIRE OF THE FIRST TWO CENTURIES 

(J. Topical Treatment i) 

THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT 

Seldom has the governmeyit of so large a part of the world been carried 
on for so long a time with such good order. — Mommsen. 

592. The " Principate." — We have noted how Augustus 
cloaked the new Monarchy in old Republican forms. In all 
his words and outward forms, he conciliated Republican feel- 
ings far more than Julius Caesar had done. Tlie Senate ex- 
ercised much real power. It was no longer a close oligarchy. 
It had become a chosen body of distinguished men, selected 
by the emperors from all parts of the realm ; and it gave 
powerful expression to the feelings and needs of the empire. 
On the whole, this continued to be true for three centuries. 
Most of the better emperors treated the Senate with respect, 
and welcomed its help in carrying on the government. 

Some writers call the government from Augustus to Diocletian by the 
name Dyarchij, to signify a '■'■joint ruW'' of emperor and Senate. In 
reality, however, a strong emperor was an absolute monarch whenever he 
cared to assert his authority. Indeed, constitutionally, he could change 
the membership of the Senate at will (§ 584). Another term for the 
disguised despotism of these centuries is the Frincipate, from the title 
Princeps (§ 569). 

1 The plan of this chapter involves some repetition of chapter xxxvii. It is 
convenient, also, to carry some of the topics on through the following third 
century a.d., though that century is not treated as a whole until chapter 
zzxiz. 

481 



482 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 593 

593. Power of the Emperors.^ — Even under Augustus, the 
duties of the consuls and other officers of the early Republican 
constitution were confined more and more to the city of Rome. 
For the government of the Empire, there grew up an imperial 
machinery, centralized in one man. 

This machinery was partly old in origin, and partly new. 
Following the example of Julius Caesar (§ 557), each emperor 
concentrated in his own person a number of the most important 
offices of the later Republic, — powers which had originally been 
intended to check one another. Each emperor held the trihu- 
nician power and the proconsular power throughout all the 
provinces for life, and so was leader of the city and master of 
the legions. Usually he became Pontifex Maximus, the head 
of the state religion. With the power of censor y he could 
appoint and degrade senators, and so could at any time make 
himself absolute master of the Senate, or, as Princeps, he could 
lead the debates in the Senate, and virtually control its decrees, 
which had become the chief means of lawmaking. He ap- 
pointed the governors of the provinces ^ and the generals of 
the legions, the city prefect, the head of the city police, and 
the prefect of the praetorians ; and, at will, he called together 
his chief officers and friends to advise and assist in carrying 
on the government. Each successor of Augustus was hailed 
Imperator Caesar Augustus. (The imperial title Caesar sur- 
vives in Kaiser, and perhaps in Tsar.) 

594. The establishment of the Empire was a gradual process. 
It is dated sometimes from the year 27 B.C., when Octavius 
received the title of Augustus ; sometimes from 31 b.c, when 
he became sole dictator ; sometimes from 49 B.C., when Caesar 
crossed the Rubicon to become master of Rome. 

But the process was not complete, even with Augustus. The 

1 There is an admirable discussion, unhappily long, in Pelham, 398-449, and 
a shorter one in Capes' Early Empire, 11-18. 

2 The Senate appointed the governors for some of the older provinces ; but 
even for these the candidate favored by the Princeps was practically sure of 
appointment. 



§595] 



THE PRINCIPATB 



483 



practical master was not yet the acknowledged monarch. An- 
other step was taken when, on Augustus' death, all the world 
quietly recognized that he must have a successor. To be sure, 
in granting titles and authority to Tiberius, the Senate made 
no reference to the term of his office ; and Tiberius pretended 
that he would lay it down as soon as the state no longer 
needed him. No one took these words seriously, however; 
and soon it became the practice for the Senate to confer all the 
imperial powers upon each new "imperator" for life. The 
appointment of the emperor by the praetorians, and then by 
the legions, was another step toward making plain the char- 
acter of the new military despotism. Domitian's assumption 
of a life-censorship (§ 584), and Hadrian's creation of a stand- 
ing Privy Council, were other steps. The most significant step 
of all was yet to come — with Diocletian (§§ 662 ff.). 

595. The uncertainty about the succession was the weakest 
point in the imperial constitution. Unlike Caesar, Augustus 
did not venture to make any of the imperial titles hereditary. 




Interior of Coliseum To-day. 



484 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. (§596 

In theory, just as the early Republican magistrates nominated 
their successors, so each emperor nominated the ablest man in 
his dominions to the Senate for his successor. But this prin- 
ciple was confused from the first by family claims, and later 
by the whims of the legions. The monarchy was neither 
elective nor hereditary, but in time it came to combine the 
evils of both systems. The best results were secured when an 
emperor, during his lifetime, associated a younger man in some 
of the imperial ofiices, and had him formally appointed by the 
Senate as the successor. Even then, the praetorian guards in 
Rome had to be conciliated by presents from each new ruler ; 
and, after these two centuries, the throne became, for a hun- 
dred years, the sport of military adventurers (§§ 639-646). 

MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT 

596. At Rome, the Assembly ceased to be a lawmaking body 
at the beginning of the Empire. During the forty years of 
Augustus, it continued to go through the form of electing 
consuls and other officers, and Augustus canvassed in person 
for its votes for himself and for his nominees. But Tiberius 
transferred all such elections to the Senate, and the Roman 
Assembly faded away. Even the local government of the 
capital (like that of Alexandria and some of the other largest 
cities) was placed wholly in the hands of officers appointed by 
the emperor or by the Senate. 

597. Municipal institutions, for local self-government, did 
survive, however, in the thousands of smaller cities through- 
out the empire. Long after the Roman Assembly had passed 
away^ popular assemblies in the cities of Gaul and of Dacia 
continued to elect each year their consuls (a sort of twin 
mayors), aediles, to oversee the police and the public works, 
and quaestors, to care for the city finances. Election placards, 
painted on the walls of the houses in Pompeii (§ 583) show 
that the contests for office were very real and quite modern in 
method. 



§598] LOCAL GOVERNMENT 485 

Some 1500 political posters were painted on the walls of Pompeii's 
streets. Probably these all concerned one recent election; for when their 
purpose was served, the space would be whitewashed over, and used for 
new notices. These notices are painted in red letters from two to ten 
inches high, on a white background. Each man, apparently, could use his 
own wall to recommend his favorite candidates ; but hired and zealous 
"bill-posters" blazoned their placards even upon private buildings and 
upon funeral monuments. A baker is nominated for quaestor (city treas- 
urer) on the ground that he sells " good bread " ; and nearby a leading aris- 
tocrat is supported as one of whom it is known that " he will guard the 
treasury." Trade gilds make some of these nominations, and even women 
take part in them, — though of course not in the voting. One "wide- 
open" candidate for " police commissioner " is attacked by an ironical 
wag in several posters — as in one that reads, "All the late-drinkers ask 
your support for Valia for the Aedileship.i " 

In each town of this sort, the ex-magistrates made up a town council 
(senate) , which voted local taxes, expended them for town purposes, and 
looked after town matters in general. The council's ordinances were 
submitted, in some towns, to an Assembly of citizens for ratification. 

598. Tendency to centralize Local Government. - - In the 
early Empire the spirit of local self-government was intense. 
Gradually, however, the interference of provincial governors 
sapped this hopeful political independence. The many vari- 
eties and irregularities of the local institutions in the different 
cities of a province caused vexatious delays, no doubt, to the 
central goverment. Strong rulers were sometimes disposed to 
sweep away the local institutions, in order to make the admin- 
istration more uniform and to secure quicker results. 

Einally, it came about that minute details were referred to 
the governor, and sometimes by him to the emperor, for deci- 
sion. Oftentimes, the better intentioned the ruler, the stronger 
this evil tendency. Pliny (§ 628) was a worthy servant of a 
noble emperor; but we find Pliny writing to ask Trajan 
whether he shall allow the citizens of a town in his province 
of Bithynia to repair their public baths, as they desire, or 

1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 99, gives several of these Pompeiian posters, with 
other Pompeiian inscriptions. There is an interesting discussion of local city 
government under the Empire in Capes' Early Empire^ 193-198. 



486 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 599 

whether he shall require them to build new ones,^ and whethei 
he shall not interfere to compel a wiser use of public moneys 
lying idle in another town, and to simplify varieties of local 
politics in other cities.^ 

Trajan, wiser than his minister, gently rebukes Pliny's over- 
zeal in this last matter and will have no wanton meddling 
with established rights and customs. But later rulers were 
not so far-sighted, and local life did decline before the spirit 
of centralization. Still, the forms of this municipal life never 
died out. The Empire passed them on — even through the 
dark period of the Middle Ages — to our modern world. 

599. The Provinces . — Above the towns there was no local 
se?/-government. The administration ^ of the provinces was 
regulated along the lines Julius Caesar had marked out, and 
the better emperors gave earnest study to provincial needs. 
But the imperial government, however paternal and kindly, 
was despotic and absolute. Provincial Assemblies, it is true, 
were called together sometimes, especially in Gaul, but only 
to give the emperor information or advice. These Assem- 
blies were made up of delegates from the various towns in a 
province. At first sight, they have the look of representa- 
tive legislatures, but they never acquired any real political 
power, except that they could petition the emperor against a 
tyrannical or incapable governor, — a petition always sure of 
careful consideration. 

IMPERIAL DEFENSE 

600. The Army. — The standing army counted thirty legions. 
The auxiliaries and naval forces raised the total of troops, at 
the highest, to some four hundred thousand. They were sta- 
tioned almost wholly on the three exposed frontiers, — the 
Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates. The inner provinces, 

1 Read the excellent extracts from this correspondence in Davis' ReadingSt 
II, No. 75. 

2 " Administration," in this common use, refers to the machinery by which 
the will of the government is carried out. 



§602] 



THE ARMY 



487 



as a rule, needed only a handful of soldiers for police purposes. 
Twelve hundred sufficed to garrison all Gaul. 

It is a curious fact that the civilized Christian nations which 
now fill the old Roman territory, with no outside barbarians to 
dread, keep always under arms twelve times the forces of the 
Roman emperors. One chief cause of the Empire, it will be 
remembered, had been the need for better protection of the 
frontiers. This need the Empire met nobiy and economically. 

601. Sources. — Roman citizens had long ceased to regard 
military service as a first duty. The army had become a 
standing body of disciplined mercenaries, with intense pride, 
however, in their fighting power, in their privileges, and in 
the Roman name. Even in the Early Empire, the recruits 
were drawn from the provinces rather than from Italy; and 
more and more the armies were renewed from the frontiers 
where they stood. In the third century barbarian mercenaries 




A GKUiViii-N Bodyguard. — A detail from the Column of Marcus Aurelius. 

were admitted on a large scale, and in the following period thej 
came to make the chief strength of the legions. From the hun- 
gry foes surging against its borders, the Empire drew the guard- 
ians of its peace. 

602. Industrial and Disciplinary Uses. — The Roman legions 
were not withdrawn wholly from productive labor. In peace, 
they were employed upon public works. "They raised the 



488 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 603 

marvelous Roman roads through, hundreis of miles of swamp 
and forest ; they spanned great rivers with magnificent bridges ; 
they built dikes to bar out the sea, and aqueducts and baths to 
increase the well-being of frontier cities." The steady discipline 
of the legions afforded also a moral and physical training, for 
which there were fewer substitutes then than now. 

The legions proved, too, a noble school for commanders. 
Merit was carefully promoted, and military incompetence disap- 
peared. Great generals followed one another in endless series, 
and several of the greatest emperors were soldiers who had 
risen from the ranks. 

603. A Social Value. — At the expiration of their twenty 
years with the eagles,^ the veterans become full Roman citizens 
(no matter whence they had been recruited). They were com- 
monly settled in colonies, with grants of land. Here they 
became valuable members of the community, and, in particular, 
they helped to mix the many races of the Roman world into one. 
Spanish troops were stationed in Switzerland ; Swiss, in Brit- 
ain ; Panonians, in Africa ; Illyrians, in Armenia. They set- 
tled and married in these new homes. Augustus said that he 
had spent over ten million dollars in purchasing lands for mili- 
tary colonies in the provinces; and this process continued, 
generation after generation. 

604. The Frontiers as Augustus found them. — Julius Caesar 
left the empire bounded by natural barriers on three sides and 
on part of the fourth : the North Sea and the Rhine to the 
northwest, the Atlantic on the west, the African and Arabian 
deserts on the south, Arabia and the upper Euphrates on the 
east, and the Black Sea to the northeast. 

The Euphrates limit was not altogether satisfactory. It sur- 
rendered to Oriental states half the empire of Alexander, and 
let the great Parthian kingdom border dangerously upon the 
Roman world. Julius seems to have intended a sweeping 
change on this side ; but none of his successors, until Trajan, 

1 The Roman military standards— with the form of eagles — are commonly 
referred t<? in this way. 






^^H^oJ ^ 












s 






Js-ZziD, 






•JXm'^^'' 



■*« 



f^r 








mfm~- ^ercaJaneuTaJiPoiDpeij- 




'■~---.r 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

At its Greatest Extent 
With some Roman Roads 



25 



SCALE OF ENGLISH MILES 
100 200 300 400 600 
^ SCALE OF ROMAN MILES 
100 200 300 400 600 



Ll. potTte Oififl'a CO. 



Lon^itfide "West 



EXPLANATION 
The Roman Empire at the Death of Caesar. 44 B.C. 
Additions np to the Death of Augustus, 14 A.D. 
J Additions up to the Death of Trajan, 117A D 

' / l1 




§605] THE FRONTIERS 489 

seriously thought of one. The only other unsafe line was on 
the north, in Europe, between the Rhine and the Black Sea. 

605. The Frontiers as Augustus corrected them. — Augustus 
aimed to make this northern line secure. He easily annexed 
the lands south of the lower Danube (modern Bulgaria) ; and, 
after many years of stubborn warfare, he added the remaining 
territory between the Danube and the Alps. The four great 
provinces, formed out of the conquered regions, were rapidly 
colonized and Romanized ; and the line of the Danube was 
firmly secured. 

In Germany, Augustus wished to move the frontier from 
the Rhine to the Elbe. The line of the Danube and Elbe is 
much shorter than that of the Danube and Rhine, though it 
guards more territory (see map). Moreover, it could have been 
more easily defended, because the critical opening between the 
upper courses of these rivers is filled by the natural wall of 
the mountains of modern Bohemia and Moravia. But here 
the long success of Augustus was broken by his one failure. 
The territory between the Rhine and the Elbe was subdued, 
it is true, and it was held for some years. But in the year 
9 A.D. the Germans rose again under the hero Hermann. 
Varus, the Roman commander, was entrapped in the Teutoherg 
Forest, and in a three-days' battle his three legions were utterly 
annihilated (Davis' Readings, II, No. 62). . 

The Roman dominion was at once swept back to the Rhine, 
This was the first retreat Rome ever made from territory 
she had once occupied. Roman writers recognized the serious 
nature of the reverse. Said one of them : " From this disaster 
it came to pass that that empire which had not stayed its 
march at the shore of ocean did halt at the banks of the 
Rhine." 

The aged Augustus was broken by the blow, and for days 
moaned repeatedly, " Varus, Varus ! give me back my 
legions ! " At his death, five years later, he bequeathed to 
his successors the advice to be content with the boundaries 
as they stood. This policy was adopted, perhaps too readily. 



490 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 606 

Tiberius did send expeditions to chastise the Germans, and 
Roman armies again marched victoriously to the Elbe. The 
standards of the lost legions were recovered ; but no attempt 
was made to restore the lost Roman province, and the Rhine 
became the accepted boundary. 

Still, the general result was both efficient and grand. About 
the civilized world was drawn a broad belt of stormy waves 
and desolate sands, and at its weaker gaps — on the Rhine, the 
Danube, the Euphrates — stood the mighty, sleepless legions 
to watch and ward. 

606. The Extreme Limits. — Claudius renewed Caesar's at- 
tempt to conquer Britain (§ 578). If the work had been car- 




Part of the Aqueduct of Claudius (cf. page 468), now used as a gate in 
a wall. Note parts of the arches in the wall. 

ried to completion, it might have been well ; but, after long, 
costly wars, the Roman power reached only to the edge of the 
highlands in Scotland. Thus a new frontier was added to the 
long line that', had to be guarded by the sword, and little 
strength was gained to the empire. Trajan, with more prov- 



THE FRONTIERS 491 

ocation than that which had lured Claudius into Britain, 
added Dacia north of the lower Danube, and Armpnia, Mesopo- 
tamia, and Assyria, in Asia (§ ^^Q>). 

The two latter provinces were at once abandoned by Tra- 
jan's successor (§ 587). Dacia, however, even more than 
Britain, became Roman in speech, culture, and largely in 
blood ; and though it was abandoned after only a hundred 
years, in the weak period toward the close of the third century 
(§ 646), still the modern Roumanians claim to be Roman in 
race as well as in name. Britain was the next province to be 
given up, when the frontier began to crumble in earnest in 
the next great period of decay (§ 720). It had been Roman 
for three hundred and fifty years. 

607. Frontier Walls. — Since the attempt had failed to secure 
the mountain barrier of Bohemia for part of the northern fron- 
tier, Domitian wisely constructed a line of forts and castles, 
with occasional long stretches of earth walls between, to protect 
the open frontier of 336 miles between the upper Danube and 
the upper Rhine. Better known, however, is the similar work 
built shortly after in Britain, called Hadrian's Wall (§ 587). 
Its purpose was to help shut out the wild Picts of the north. 
It extended from the Tyne to the Solway, and considerable 
remains still exist. Under Antoninus, a like structure was 
made farther north, just at the foot of the highlands, from the 
Clyde to the Forth, along the line of Agricola's earlier rampart. 

Hadrian's "Wall was seventy miles long, extending almost from sea to 
sea. It consisted of three distinct parts, (1) a stone wall and ditch, on the 
north ; (2) a double earthen rampart and ditch, about one hundred and 
twenty yards to the south ; and (3) between wall and rampart a series 
of fourteen fortified camps connected by a road. The northern wall was 
eight feet broad and twenty feet high, with turreted gate? -i.t mile inter- 
vals, and with numerous large towers for guard-stations 

LIFE IN THE EMPIRE 

608. Good Government even by Bad Emperors. — The first two 
centuries were one long period of good government for the 



492 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 609 

Roman world. A few of the Caesars at Rome were weak or 
wicked, but their follies or crimes were felt only by the nobles 
of the capital. The system of government had become so fixed 
that the world moved on along much the same lines whether a 
philanthropic Aurelius or a mad Caligula sat upon the throne. 

" To the Roman city the Empire was political death ; to the provinces 
it was the beginning of new life. ... It was not without good reason that 
the provincials raised their altars to more than one prince for whom the 
citizens [of Rome], also not without good reason, sharpened their daggers." 
— Freeman, Chief Periods, ^^^. 

" It was in no mean spirit of flattery that the provincials raised statues 
and altars to the Emperors, to some even of the vilest who have ever 
ruled. . . . The people knew next to nothing of their vices and follies, and 
thought of them chiefly as the symbol of the ruling Providence which, 
throughout the civilized world, had silenced war and faction and secured 
the blessings of prosperity and peace, before unknown." — Capes, Early 
Empire, 202. 

609. Peace and Prosperity. — The year 69 (§ 580) was the only 
serious break in the quiet of the first two centuries. In Britain 
there was a revolt, under the queen Boadicea,^ in 58 a.d. ; but, 
like the rising of the Germans under Hermann (§ 605), this 
was really a frontier war. A rebellion of some Gallic tribes, 
under their gallant chieftain Civilis,^ was connected with the 
disorders of the year 69. The rebellion of the Jews (§ 582) 
came at almost the same time, and, to the empire at large, even 
this was only a trivial disturbance. All in all, an area as large 
as the United States, with a population about the same as ours, 
rested for more than two hundred years in the '^ good Roman 
peace.'^ 

Never, before or since, has so large a part of the world known 
such unbroken rest from the horrors and waste of war. Few 
troops were seen within the empire, and " the distant clash of 
arms upon the Euphrates or the Danube scarcely disturbed the 
tranquillity of the Mediterranean lands." The reign of the 
Antonines has been called the " golden age of humanity." Gib- 

1 Special report. 



610] 



PEACE AND PROSPERITY 



493 



bon believed that a man, if allowed bis choice, would prefer to 
have lived then rather than at any other period. And says 
Mommsen : — 

The Empire fostered the peace and prosperity of the many nations united 
under its sway longer and more completely than any other leading power 
has ever succceeded in doing. . . . And if an angel of the Lord were to 
strike a balance lohether the domain ruled by Severus Antoninus ^ was 
governed with the greater intelligence and greater humanity at that time 
or in the present day, whether civilization and national prosperity gen- 
erally have since that time advanced or retrograded, it is very doubtful 
whether the decision would prove in favor of the present.'''' 

610. Wealth and City Growth. — ^Everywhere rude stockaded 
villages changed into stately marts of trade, huts into palaces, 







K> i , TTfTtl 


«i1 


i|p^ili|5w^-''#'^ "'^'~ 


&iu'"^^~?'*^^^Sp^^"^?^ *' '■ ■"*'•"' 


lit • ^'^^ 



Aqueduct near Nimes, France, built by Autonlnus Pius to supply the city 
with water from distant mountain springs; present condition of the long 
gray structure, where it crosses a deep valley. The water pipes were carried 
across streams and valleys on arches like these, and through hills by tunnels. 
Some of these Roman aqueducts remained in use till very recent days. 

footpaths into paved Roman roads. Roman irrigation made part 
of the African desert the garden of the world, where, from drift- 

1 An emperor of the third century, after decay had set in (§ 643). 



494 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 61\ 

ing sands, desolate ruins mock the traveler of to-day.^ The 
legular symbol of Africa iu art was a stately virgin with arms 
filled with sheaves of golden grain. In Gaul, Caesar found no 
real towns; but in the third century that province had 116 
flourishing cities, with baths, temples, amphitheaters, works 
of art, roads, aqueducts, and schools of eloquence and rhetoric. 
One of the two Spanish provinces had 174 towns, each with a 
charter from some emperor defining its rights of self-govern- 
ment. Such grants were common, especially in the Western 
half of the empire. 

Particular attention was paid in cities to the water supply. 
That of Rome was better than that of London or Paris to-day. 
The cities had more and better public baths than the modern 
capitals of Europe or the cities of America. In Rome the 
public baths would accommodate more than 60,000 people at 
one moment. 

The early Christians were not overfriendly toward the 
Pagan Empire, which persecuted them, nor very much in- 
clined to praise worldly prosperity, anyway But Tertullian, 
one of the greatest of the Christian " Fathers," wrote about 
200 A.D. : — 

" Each day the world becomes more beautiful, more wealthy, more 
splendid. No corner remains inaccessible. Every spot is the scene of 
trade. Recent deserts now bloom with verdure Forests give way to 
tilled acres ; wild beasts retreat before domestic animals. Everywhere are 
houses, people, cities. Everywhere there is life." 

611. Forms oi Industry. — The empire pulsed with busy, 
throbbing life. In the main, it was a city life ; but most cities 
rested directly on agriculture. There were a few great centers 
of trade, — Rome, with perhaps two million people, Alexandria 
and Antioch with half a million each, and Corinth, Carthage, 
Ephesus, and Lyons (Lugdunum) with some 250,000 each. 
These commercial cities were also centers of manufactures. 

1 Under French rule North Africa, in the last of the nineteenth century, 
began to recover its Roman prosperity after a lapse of fifteen hundred years. 



611] 



PEACE AND PROSPERITY 



495 



A letter, ascribed to Hadrian, declares that in Alexandria " No 
one is idle; some work glass, some make paper (papyrus), some 
weave linen. Money is the only god." The looms of Sidon 
and other old Phoenician cities ceaselessly turned forth their 
precious purple cloths. Miletus, Rhodes, and the other old 
Greek cities of the Asiatic coast, were famous for their woolen 




A City Gate at Pompeii. 

manufactures. Syrian factories poured silks, precious tapes- 
tries, and morocco leather into the western trade. The silver- 
smiths of Ephesus were numerous enough to stir up a formidable 
riot, on occasioii.^ In Rome the bakers' gild listed 254 dif- 
ferent shops, and there were 2300 places where olive oil was 
for sale.2 

In these larger towns there was always a rabble; and in 



^Acts of the Apostles, xix, 23-41. That passage gives also a valuable pic- 
ture of city political life under the empire. 

2 Olive oil had many uses in the ancient world, and was a necessity in 
every household. 



496 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§611 

Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, the government regularly- 
supported the unemployed by distributions of free grain. But 
after all, these large cities, taken all together, were only a small 
part of the Roman world, — holding perhaps a twentieth or 
twenty -fifth of the total population. Most of the other seventy- 
five or eighty million people lived in small towns, of 20,000 and 
less. We should learn to think of the empire as mapped into 
municipia, and understand that each of these was a farming dis- 
trict, with the town f 07^ its core. 

The devouring of small farms by large landlords, which had 
ruined much of Italy in the second century b.c, began to show 
ominously in the provinces by the second century a.d. ; but on 
the whole, for this period, especially in the western half of 
the empire, the farmers were a plain, sturdy peasantry, owning 
their own lands, or, generation after generation, tilling the 
same farms as tenants.^ Market gardening was a profitable 
employment near che cities, and Varro (§ 625) tells of two old 
soldiers who, with half an acre of land, made $500 a year from 
their bees, — an amount equivalent to an income of several 
thousand dollars to-day. 

As always in the Old World, this farming peasantry lived, 
not each family on its own farmstead as with us, but either 
in the city or in small hamlets grouped about it. (Cf. § 15.) 
Each town had its numerous gilds of artisans, weavers, fullers, 
and shopkeepers. Slaves performed most of the unskilled 
hand-labor in the towns. Thus a baker or a mason would 
usually have two or three or a dozen slaves to work under 
his direction. For the " gentleman class " (nobles) there were 
the occupations of law, the army, literature, and the farming 
of large estates. A middle class furnished merchants (as dis- 
tinguished from shopkeepers), engineers, architects, bankers, 
teachers, and many of the men of letters. In medicine there 
was considerable subdivision of labor. We read of dentists, 
and of eye-and-ear specialists. Many so-called physicians 

1 For this last condition, even in Italy (in the North), see Davis' Readings, 
II, No. 88. 



I 



§ 612] TRAVEL 497 

were cheap quacks, and many were slaves ; but the more 
skilled members of this profession came from the middle 
class. One physician speaks of his income as 600,000 sester- 
ces a year (about $24,000 in our money, or nearly $150,000 
a year in purchasing power to-day) ; and many of them left 
large fortunes. Medicine, commerce, and banking, however, 
were not for the noble class. 

612. Communication and Travel. — The roads were safe. 
Piracy ceased from the seas, and trade flourished as it was 
not to flourish again until the days of Columbus. The ports 
were crowded with shipping, and the Mediterranean was spread 
with happy sails. One Roman writer exclaims that there are 
as many men upon the waves as upon iand.^ An immense 
traffic flowed ceaselessly between Europe and Central Asia 
along three great arteries : one la the north by the Black Sea 
and by caravan (along the line of the present Russian trans- 
Caspian railway) ; one on the south by Suez and the Red Sea ; 
one by caravan across Arabia, where, amid the sands, arose 
white-walled Palmyra, Queen of the Desert. 

From frontier to frontier, communication was safe and rapid. 
The grand military and post roads ran in trunk-lines — a thou- 
sand miles at a stretch — from every frontier toward the cen- 
tral heart of the empire, with a dense network of ramifications 
in every province. Guidebooks described routes and distances. 
Inns abounded. The imperial couriers that hurried along the 
great highways passed a hundred and fifty milestones a day ; 
and private travel, from the TJiames to the Euphrates, was swifter, 
safer, and more comfortable than ever again until the days of rail- 
roads, well into the nineteenth century. 

Naturally, travel was very popular. The gravestones of 
ancient Syrian merchants are found to-day scattered from 
Roumania to France, and the monuments of Gallic traders in 



1 The ancient merchant vessel was not unlike the sailing ships engaged in 
Mediterranean coasting trade to-day. Multitudes of them could carry two 
or three hundred passengers, besides their freight, and we hear of an occasional 
"three-decker" which could carry a thousand or fifteen hundred people^ 



498 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 612 

Asia witness to this ancient intercourse. One Phrygian mer- 
chant who died at home asserts on his gravestone that he had 
sailed " around Greece to Italy seventy-two times ! " And men 
traveled for pleasure as well as for business. There was a 
keen desire in each great quarter of the empire to see the 
other regions which Rome had molded into one world. It 
seems to have been at least as common a thing for the gentle- 
man of Gaul or Britain to visit the wonders of Rome and of 
the iSTile as for the modern American to spend a summer in 
England and France. One great annoyance to modern travel, 
indeed, was absent. One language, or at most, two, answered 
all needs from London to Babylon. Whole families took 
pleasure trips in a body ; and, quite in modern fashion, they 
sometimes defaced precious monuments of the past with their 
scrawls. One of the most famous statues of Egypt bears a 
scratched inscription that it has been visited by a Roman 
" Gemellus '^ with " his dear wife, Rufilla " and their children. 
And a lonely Roman lady scrawled upon one of the pyramids 
her tearful lamentation that she was compelled to see these 
wonders " without you, dearest of brothers." 

Much of this travel was in wheeled and cushioned carriages, 
which rolled smoothly along the perfectly faced stones of the 
Roman roads. But many people chose instead luxurious lit- 
ters, each swung along by its eight even-paced Cappadocian 
slaves.^ The motion was so easy, we are told by ancient 
authors, that reading and even writing were pleasant employ- 
ments in them — as in a modern "Pullman." 

Strangely enough, though the imperial postal service for 
official business was well organized throughout the empire, 
there was no public postal service for private correspondence. 
This was one reason why merchants had to travel so inces- 

1 In all this treatment, I am greatly indebted to the recent invaluable study 
by William Stearns Davis, — The Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome. 
That book is not designed for young high school students ; but the lucid and 
interesting style makes it usable even by them, and a teacher will find many 
'valuable readings in it. 



§ 613] COMMERCE 499 

santly in person — instead of doing business through corre- 
spondents and agents in other provinces. There were many 
private post companies, however, to carry people and letters 
from city to city, and the wealthy sometimes sent letters 
to distant la,nds by trusted slaves. 

613. "Foreign'' Commerce. — It was to be expected, with so 
much travel in the Roman world, that the products of one 
part of the empire would be known and used in every other 
part. We are hardly surprised to find that women of the Swiss 
mountains wore jewelry made in Asia Minor, or to learn that 
Italian wines were drunk in Britain and in Cilicia. But there 
was also a vast commerce with regions beyond the boundaries 
of the empire. Roman writers are provokingly brief and vague 
in their many allusions to this trade, and the barbarians, of 
course, have left no records of it. We know that Caesar found 
that the trader had preceded his legions to the most distant parts 
of Gaul in his day ; and, just as English and Dutch traders 
journeyed three hundred years ago far into the savage interiors 
of America for better and better bargains in furs, so did 
the indomitable Roman trader continue to press on into re- 
gions where the legions never camped. We know they visited 
Ireland; and both by sea and by overland routes from the 
Danube, they found their way to the Baltic shores. Thence 
they brought back amber, furs, and flaxen German hair with 
which the dark Roman ladies liked to deck their heads. Such 
goods the trader paid for in toys and trinkets and in wine and 
sometimes in Roman arms and tools — as our colonial traders 
got their furs from the Indians with beads and whisky and guns 
and powder and knives. Roman iron arms have been found on 
the Jutland coast, — probably left there in such commerce. 

On the south, East Africa and Central Africa rewarded 
the venturesome trader with ivory, spices, apes, rare marblesj 
wild beasts, and negro slaves. 

On the east, the trader reached civilized lands. Unhappily 
it is just this trade that has the least history. A Latin poe'c 
of Hadrian's time speaks of the " many merchants " who 



500 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 614 

reaped " immense riches " by venturesome voyages over the 
Indian Ocean " to the mouth of the Ganges." India, Ceylon, 
and Malasia sent to Europe indigo, spices, pearls, sapphires, 
and other precious stones. The East did not care for Western 
products in exchange, but had to be paid in coin ; and in Tra- 
jan's time, Pliny the Elder (§ 627) estimated that India drew 
$2,000,000 a year in gold and silver away from the Roman 
world. From shadowy regions beyond India came the silk 
yarn which kept the Syrian looms busy. Chinese annals of 
the year 166 a.d. tell of an " embassy" from the Emperor 
Marcus Aurelius ; and 200 years later they speak again of the 
port of Canton receiving from Roman traders glass and metal 
wares, amber, jewels, and drugs. 

614. Banking and Panics. — Banking had long been an im- 
portant business. The early Romans and Greeks often buried 
their money in the earth for safe keeping, but that practice 
had long ceased except with such ignorant or slothful rustics 
as are rebuked in Christ's parable. Instead, all over the 
Roman world, men placed money with the bankers, to receive 
it again with interest. The bankers, of course, had earned the 
interest (and their own profits) by lending the money out mean- 
while at higher rates than they paid. As with our own day, 
so in the Roman empire, a large part of the business was done 
on borrowed capital furnished by bankers. 

And as trade grew, it added another feature to the banking 
business. Innumerable merchants in every part of the empire 
would come, day by day, to owe one another large sums. To 
carry the coin from one frontier to another for each such debt 
would be costly — and indeed impossible for business of such 
volume as had grown up. So banks, as with us, had come to 
sell " bills of exchange," or drafts. A merchant in Alexandria 
who owed money to a citizen of Cologne could pay the amount 
into a home bank (plus some " premium " for the bank's serv- 
ice) and receive an order for the amount on a bank in Co- 
logne. This slip of paper would then be sent to the creditor in 
Cologne, who could present i\, at his bank and get his money. 



§615] BANKING AND "PANICS" 501 

The Cologne bank, sooner or later, would have occasion to sell 
a draft upon the Alexandria bank, in like fashion. At some 
convenient time, the two banks would have to settle their bal- 
ance in coin ; but the amount to be carried from one to the 
other would be very small, compared with the total amount of 
business 

With such a wide-spread system of "credits," the Roman world, like 
our own, had its money flurries and " panics." A crop failure in Africa, 
or the loss of a richly laden merchant fleet by a hurricane in the Red sea, 
or a period of rash speculation in Gaul, was felt at once in the money 
market in every part of the empire. The failure of a great banking 
house in Antioch might drag down others in Rome and Alexandria. 
Thus in the year of Christ's crucifixion there happened the first great 
money panic in history, — an event which made much more noise in the 
Roman world than the vague rumor of a slight disturbance in Judea. 

The Emperor Tiberius checked the disaster by promptly placing 
$4,000,000 in coin from the imperial treasury in certain central banks, to 
be loaned to hard-pressed debtors, and by ordering that debtors who 
could give ample security in real estate should have a three-years' extension 
of time. But it is clear that if the Roman world had many of the ad- 
vantages which the modern world finds in a credit system, it had also the 
modern troubles. i 

615. Taxation and Roads. — Taxation by the central govern- 
ment was heavy, no doubt, but during these two centuries it 
was less in amount than most of the provinces had had to pay 
to their earlier native rulers. Every farmer and landlord paid 
a tax on land. In the towns, every citizen and every trader 
paid a poll tax. Tariffs were sometimes collected at the fron- 
tiers of a province on goods entering or departing. Koman 
citizens paid a tax of five per cent on inheritances. Further- 
more, Africa and Egypt })aid a peculiar tax in grain. The 
Egyptian grain tax, some 144,000,000 bushels each year, was 
carried to Rome to feed the hungry masses, — largely in free 
distributions. Although the imperial tax was heavy, it was 
usually collected with the greatest possible consideration. In 

1 See Davis' Readings, II, No. 76. Dr. Davis has a striking picture of this 
panic in the opening chapter of his Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome. 



502 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 616 

a bad season, in a given province, the amount was lessened 
promptly by imperial order. If an Egyptian village, in a dry 
year, received too little water from the Nile for its usual crop, 
the tribute in grain was remitted or lightened. 

What did the government do for the people in return for the 
taxes it took from them? Many things which a government 
does to-day, it did not do then. It did not build hospitals or 
asylums, or maintain complete systems of education, or care 
systematically for the public health. Yet the government of 
the Roman empire came nearer doing these things than any 
government in the world was to do after it until very recent 
times. And two things in particular it did do. It kept the 
'^ good Roman peace " of which so much has been said above, 
and it built and kept in repair the Roman roads, — the bonds of 
union and means of intercourse in the Roman world. This 
meant a huge expense. We happen to be informed that in 
Hadrian's rule a mile of road in southern Italy cost $4000. 
On the frontiers and in mountain districts, the cost must have 
been many times that amount. The one island of Sicily had a 
thousand miles of such roads. In France, 13,200 miles of 
road can still be traced. Every province shared in this great 
work, which was looked after by a special department of the 
government. Besides the imperial roads, each province was 
expected and sometimes required to build many radiating 
branches at its own expense. 

616. The World becomes Roman. — Julius Caesar had begun 
the rapid expansion of Roman citizenship beyond Italy. 
Through his legislation the number of adult males with the 
franchise rose from some nine hundred thousand to over four 
million. Augustus was more cautious, but before his death 
the total reached nearly five million.^ This represented a popu- 
lation of some twenty-five million people, in an empire of 
something more than three times that number, including 
slaves. Claudius made the next great advance, after a curious 

1 Augustus is our authority for both these sets of figures. See extract in 
Davis' Readings y II, No. 56. 



§617] UNITY OF FEELING 503 

debate in the Senate,^ raising the total of adult male citizens, fit 
for military service, to about seven millions. Hadrian com- 
pleted the enfranchisement of Gaul and Spain. The final step 
was taken a little later by Caracalla (§ 642), who made all free 
inhabitants of the empire full citizens in 212 a.d. This com- 
pleted the process of political absorption that began when the 
Eomans and Sabines of the Palatine and Quirinal made their 
first compact (§ 338). 

By the time of Caracalla the tranchise was no longer exercised, for the 
Roman Assembly had ceased except as a mob gathering. Moreover, 
most of the provincials had already come to possess many of the advan- 
tages of citizens. Caracalla probably acted from a desire to increase the 
revenues, — since citizens were subject to some taxes not paid by non- 
citizens. Still the gift of complete citizenship, with its eligibility to office 
and its rights before the law, was no slight gain. The apostle Paul before 
Festus, lays stress upon his privileges as a Roman citizen (§ 653). 

617. Unity of Feeling. — By its generous policy, by its pros- 
perity and good government, by its uniform law, and its means 
of close communication, the empire won spiritual dominion 
over the hearts and minds of men. Kome molded the manifold 
races of her realms into one, — not by conscious effort or by 
violent legislation, but through their own affectionate choice. 
This Romanization was very different from the violent meas- 
ures used by Eussia or Germany before the World War to 
nationalize their mixed populations, and more like the uncon- 
scious absorption of many stocks in the United States. Gaul, 
Briton, Dacian, African, Greek, called themselves Romans. They 
were so, in life, thought, and feeling. The East kept its Greek 
tongue and a pride in its earlier civilization (§ 475) ; but it, 
too, turned from the glories of Miltiades and Leonidas for 
what seemed the higher honor of the Roman name. And East 
and West alike used the Roman law and Roman political institu- 
tions. 



1 Cf. § 587. Read the speech of tht Emperor (Davis' Readings, II, No. 63), 
and note also the freedom and charactBr of interruptions by the Senator^. 



504 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 617 



The union of the Roman world was not, like that of previous 
empires, one of external force.^ It was in the inner life of the 
people. The provincials had no reason to feel a difference 
between themselves and the inhabitants of Italy. From the 
provinces now came the men of letters who made Roman litera- 
ture glorious, and the grammarians who defined the Roman 
language (§§ 626 ff.). They furnished nearly all the emperors. 




PAI.ACE OF THE ROMAN EmpERORS AT TRIEB. 

In their cities arose schools of rhetoric that taught the use of 
Latin even to youth born by the Tiber. 

The poet Claudian, an Egyptian Greek of the fourth century, 
expressed this noble unity in patriotic lines : — 

" Rome, Rome alone has found the spell to charm 
The tribes that bowed beneath her conquering arm; 



1 Note that the physical conquests of Rome were chiefly made under the 
Republic. The Empire was a defensive civilized state ; and its wars, wi^h 
roir^ exceptions^ wer^ not /or conquest- 



§617) 



UNITY OF FEELING 



505 



Has given one name to the whole human race, 
And clasped and sheltered them in fond embrace, — 
Mother, not mistress; called her foe her son j 
And by soft ties made distant countries one. 
This to her peaceful scepter all men owe, — 
That through the nations, wheresoe'er we go 
Strangers, we find a fatherland. Our home 
We change at will; we count it sport to roam 
Through distant Thule, or with sails unfurled 
Seek the most drear recesses of the world. 
Though we tread Rhone's or Orontes' i shore, 
Yet are we all one nation evermore." 

And at the very close of the dark fourth century, when to us 
the glory of Rome seems to have departed (§ 687), a Christian 
writer dwells glowingly upon this same unity : " We live, no 




The Black Gate {Porta Nigra) at Trier. 
This is called the noblest Roman ruin in Germany. 



1 A Syrian river. 



506 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 618 

matter where we are in the world, as fellow-citizens, ... in- 
closed within the circuit of one city and grown up at the same 
domestic hearth ... an equal law has made all men equal." 
(See the rest of this tribute in Davis' Readings, II, No. 115.) 

618. Diffusion of Social Life. — Life did not remain centered 
at Rome as in the first century b.c. To condense a passage 
from Freeman's Impressions of Borne : — 

" Her walls were no longer on the Tiber, but on the Danube, the 
Rhine, and the German Ocean. Instead of an outpost at Janiculum, 
her fortresses were at York and Trier. Many of the emperors after the 
first century were more at home in tliese and other distant cities than in 
the ancient capital, — which they visited perhaps only two or three times 
in a reign, for some solemn pageant. i In these once provincial towns 
the pulse of Boman life beat more strongly than in Old Borne itself^'' 

619. The Universities. — The three great centers of learning 
were Rome, Alexandria, and Athens. In these cities there 
were universities, as we should call them now, with vast libra- 
ries and numerous professorships. The early Ptolemies in 
Egypt had begun such foundations at Alexandria (§ 319). 
Augustus followed their example at Athens, from his private 
fortune. Vespasian was the first to pay salaries from the 
public treasury ; and Marcus Aurelius began the practice of 
permanent state eyidowments. That is, the government gave 
large sums of money or valuable property, the income of which 
was to be used for the support of the institution receiving the 
gift, — as with our national land grants to State universities. 

The professors had the rank of Senators, with good salaries, 
and with assured pensions after twenty years of service. At 
Rome there were ten chairs of Latin Grammar (language and 
literary criticism) ; ten of Greek ; three of Rhetoric, which 
included law and politics ; ^ and three of Philosophy, which 
included logic. These represent the three chief studies (the 

1 This statement holds good for most of the better emperors. As a rule it 
was the weak or wicked ones who spent their reigns in the capital. 

2 Because these were subjects to which rhetoric was especially applied and 
on accoxmt of which it was studied. 



§621] EDUCATION 507 

trivium) — language, rhetoric, and philosopliy. There was 
also a group of mathematical studies, — music, arithmetic,^ 
geometry, astronomy (the quadrivium). In some universities 
special studies flourished. Thus, law was a specialty at Eome, 
and medicine at Alexandria. 

620. Schools. — Below the universities, in all large provincial 
towns, there were " grammar schools.'^ These were endowed by 
the emperors, from Vespasian's time, and corresponded in some 
measure to advanced high schools, or small colleges. 

Those in Gaul and Spain were especially famous ; in partic- 
ular, the ones at Massilia, Autun, Narbonne, Lyons, Bordeaux, 
Toulouse. The reputation of the instructors in the best schools 
drew students from all the empire. The walls of the class 
rooms were painted with maps, dates, and lists of facts. The 
masters were appointed by local magistrates, with life tenure 
and good pay. Like the professors in the universities, they 
were exempt from taxation and had many privileges. 

In the small towns were many schools of a lower grade. But 
all this education was for the upper and middle classes, and for 
occasional bright boys from the lower classes who found some 
wealthy patron. Little was done toward dispelling the dense 
ignorance of the masses. Rich men and women, however, 
sometimes bequeathed money to schools in their home cities for 
the education of poor children.^ 

621. Architecture was the chief Roman art. With the Early 
Empire it takes on its distinctive character. To the Greek 
columns it adds the noble Roman arch, with its modification, 
the dome. As compared with Greek architecture, it has 
more massive grandeur and is more ornate. The Romans com- 
monly used the rich Corinthian column instead of the simpler 
Doric or Ionic (§ 154). 



iWhen Roman numerals were used, arithmetic could not be an elementarj) 
study. To appreciate this, let the student try to multiply xliv by xix. 

2 Davis' Readings, II, No. 80, gives Pliny's account of such an endowment. 
No. 79 — Horace's story of how his father, a poor farmer, gave him an educa- 
tion — throws light on this topic. 



^08 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 621 




The Pantheon To-day 




A Section of the Pantheon. 



§622] 



ARCHITECTURE 



509 



622. Famous Buildings. — The most famous building of the Augustan 
Age is the Fantheon, — "shrine of all saints and temple of all gods,"— 
built in the Campus Martins by the minister Agrippa.i It is a circular 




The Coliseum, seen through the Arch of Titus. Cf. pp. 471, 478. 



1 Some recent archaeologists say that Hadrian built the Pantheon in its 
present form, retaining the inscription in honor of Agrippa from an earlier 



510 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. 



[§622 



structure, 132 feet in diameter and of the same height, surmounted by a 
majestic dome that originally flashed with tiles of bronze. The interior 

is broadly flooded with light from an aper- 
ture in the dome 26 feet in diameter. The 
inside walls were formed of splendid col- 
umns of yellow marble, with gleaming white 
capitals supporting noble arches, upon 
which again rested more pillars and another 
row of arches — up to the base of the dome. 
Under the arches, in pillared recesses, stood 
the statues of the gods of all religions ; for 
this grand temple was symbolic of the 
grander toleration and unity of the Roman 
world. Time has dealt gently with it, and 
almost alone of the buildings of its day it 
has lasted to ours.i 

The Coliseum was begun by Vespasian 
and finished by Domitian. It is a vast 
stone awijp^itheater {two theaters, face to 
face) for wild beast shows and games. It 
covers six acres, and the walls rise 150 feet. 
It seated 45,000 spectators. For centuries, 
in the Middle Ages, its ruins were used as 
a quarry for the palaces of Roman nobles, 
but its huge size has prevented its complete 
destruction. 

A favorite application of the arch was the 
triumphal arch, adorned with sculptures 
and covered with inscriptions, spanning a 
street, as if it were a city gate. Among 
the more famous structures of this kind in 
Rome were the arches of Titus, Trajan, 
Antoninus, and, later, of Constantine (see 
pages 509, 514, 515, etc.). 
Trajan's Column. The Romans erected also splendid mon- 




building, Agrippa was an early friend of Augustus and a faithful assistant 
through his whole life. He was an able soldier and an ardent builder In his 
patronage of art and architecture he filled a place like that of Maecenas in 
literature (§ 571, note). Agrippa's generalship won the battle of Actium. He 
became the son-in-law of Augustus, and, except for his death shortly before 
that of the Emperor, he would probably have succeeded to his power. 
1 Read the picture in Byron's Chllde Harold, canto iv. 



§623] 



ARCHITECTURE 



511 



umental columns. The finest surviving example is Trajan's Column, one 
hundred feet high, circled with spiral bands of sculpture containing twenty- 




Aisle 



Nave 



Aisle 



General, Plan of a Basilica. 

five hundred human figures. It commemorated and illustrated Trajan's 
t)acian expedition. 
623. Roman Basilicas and the Later Christian Architecture. — 

One other kind of building must have special mention. A little before 




Interior of Trajan's Basilica, — a " restoration " by Canina. 

the Empire, the Romans adopted the Greek basilica i and soon made it a 
favorite form of building for the law courts. 



1 So called from the hall at Athens where the basileus archon (king archon) 
heard cases at law involving religious questions. Cf . § 134. 



512 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [| 624 

The general plan was that of a great oblong hall, its length some two 
times its breadth, with a circular raised apse at the end, where sat the numer- 
ous judges. The hall itself was divided by two long rows of pillars into 
three parts running from the entrance to the apse — a central nave and 
two aisleSj one each side of the nave. Sometimes there were double rows 
of pillars, making two aisles on each side. The nave was left open up to 
the lofty roof ; but above the side aisles there were galleries shut off by a 
parapet, which supported a row of elevated pillars. These galleries were 
for the general public. 

The Christians found this building admirably adapted for their worship. 
After the conversion of the Empire, numerous basilicas were converted 
into churches, and for centuries all ecclesiastical buildings had this 
general plan. With slight changes, it grew into the plan of the medieval 
cathedral. 

LITERATURE 

Until just before the Empire, literature plays a small part in 
Roman life ; and it has not been needful to mention it until now. 
To grasp the literary conditions under the Empire, however, it 
is desirable to review briefly the earlier period also. The fol- 
lowing outline is designed only for reading and reference, not 
for careful study. If the teacher likes, it can be discussed in 
class, with open books. 

624. Before the Age of Cicero. — Rome had no literature until the 
middle of the third century b.c. Then the influence of her conquest of 
Magna Graecia began to be felt. Livius Andronicus, a Greek slave from 
Tarentum, introduced the drama at Rome ; but his plays, and those of his 
successor Naevius^ were mainly translations from older Greek writers. 

Unnius, also from Magna Graecia, comes in the period just after the 
Second Punic War. He translated Greek dramas, but his chief work was 
an epic on the legendary history of Rome. 

Comedy was represented by two greater names, Plautus (of Italian 
origin) and Terence (a slave from Carthage). Both modeled their plays 
upon those of the Greek Menander (§ 313). Plautus (254-184 b.c.) is 
rollicking but gross. Terence (a generation later) is more refined. 

To the period between the Second and Third Punic wars belong also 
Cato'^s Origines (an early history of Rome), an earlier history by 
Fabius Pictor, and the great history by the Greek Folybius, all of which 
have been referred to before in this volume. 

625. The part of the first century B.C. preceding Augustus is 
sometimes known as the Age of Cicero from the name that made its chief 



J 627] LITERATURE 513 

{jlory. Cicero remains the foremost orator of Rome and the chief master 
of Latin prose. 

Two great poets belong to the period : Lucretius the Epicurean, a 
Roman knight, who reaches a sublimity never attained by other Latin 
poets ; and Catullus from Cisalpine Gaul, whose lyrics are unsurpassed 
for delicacy, and who attacked Caesar with bitter invective, to meet 
gentle forgiveness. 

History is represented by the concise, graphic, lucid narrative of 
Caesar^ the picturesque stories of Sallust (who is our chief authority for 
the conspiracy of Catiline and the Jugurthine War), and by the inferior 
work of Nepos and Varro. 

626. In the Augustan Age the stream broadens, and only the more 
important writers can be mentioned. 

Horace (son of an Apulian freedman) wrote the most graceful of Odes and 
most playful of Satires, while his Epistles combine agreeably a serene 
common sense with beauty of expression. 

Virgil (from Cisalpine Gaul) is probably the chief Roman poet. He is 
best known to school boys by his epic, the Aeneid, but critics rank 
higher his Georgics (exquisite poems of country life). In the Middle 
Ages Virgil was regarded as the greatest of poets, and Dante was proud 
to acknowledge him for a master. 

Ovid (Roman knight) has for his chief work the Metamorphoses, a mytho- 
logical poem. Ovid's last years were spent in banishment on the shores 
of the Black Sea, where he wrote pathetic verses that will always keep 
alive a gentle memory for his name. 

Livy (of Cisalpine Gaul) and Dionysius (an Asiatic Greek) wrote their 
great histories of Rome in this reign. Diodorus (a Sicilian Greek) wrote 
the first general history of the world. Greek science is continued by 
Strabo of Asia Minor (living at Alexandria), who produced a system- 
atic geography of the Roman world, and speculated on the possibility 
of one or more continents in the unexplored Atlantic between Europe 
and Asia. The last three authors wrote in Greek, 

627. In the first century, later than Augustus, we have among 
other authors the follovdng: the poets Lucan and Martial (famous for his 
satirical wit), both Spaniards ; the Jewish historian Josephus (writing in 
Greek) ; the scientist Pliny the Elder (of Cisalpine Gaul), who perished 
in the eruption of Vesuvius in his scientific zeal to observe the phenomena ; 
the rhetorician Quintilian (a Spaniard) ; the philosophers Epictetus and 
Seneca (both Stoics). Seneca was a Roman noble of Spanish birth; 
Epictetus was a slave from Phrygia. Both taught a lofty philosophy, 
but the slave was the nobler both in teaching and in life. 



514 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 628 



628. In the second century contemporary society is charmingly 
Illustrated in the Letters of Pliny the Younger (from Cisalpine Gaul), 




Arch op Titus, 

and is gracefully satirized in the Dialogues of Lucian (a Syrian Greek), 
In history we have : — 

Appian (an Alexandrian Greek), who wrote (in Greek) a history of the 
different parts of the empire ; 

Arrian (an Asiatic Greek), who wrote (in Greek) biographies of Alexan- 
der and his successors, and treatises on geography ; 

Plutarch (a Boeotian), the author of the famous Lives (" the text-book 
of heroism ") and of a great treatise on Morals (in Greek) ; 

Suetonius, the biographer of the first twelve Caesars ; 

Tacitus (a Roman noble), author of the Germania (a description of the 
Germans), and of a great history of the Empire from Tiberius to Nerva. 
Unhappily only fragments survive, under the names of the Annals and 
the Histories. 

Poetry is represented chiefly by the Satires of Juvenal (an Italian). 
Science is represented by : — 

Galen (an Asiatic Greek), who wrote treatises on medicine (in Greek), 
and who was revered for many centuries as the greatest medical author- 
ity ; 



§628] 



LITERATURE 



515 



Ptolemy, an Egyptian astronomer and geographer, whose work {in Greek) 
was the chief authority for centuries. He taught that the earth was 
round, and that the heavens revolved about it for their center ; 




Trajan's Arch, at Beneventum. 

Pausanias (an Asiatic Greek), a traveler and writer (in Greek). 

Philosophy has for its chief representative: — 
Marcus Aurelius, the emperor (§§ 589, 638). 

For the Christian religion : the books of the New Testament received 
their present form in Greek. 



516 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 629 

Exercise. — Note the significance in the use of Greek or Latin by the 
authors named above (cf. § 475). Observe the increase in prose literature. 

MORALS 

629. The Dark Side. — Many writers dwell upon the im- 
morality of Roman society under the Empire. It is easy to 
blacken the picture unduly. The records give most prominence 
to the court and the capital ; and there the truth is dark enough. 
During some reigns, the atmosphere of the court was rank with 
hideous debauchery. At all times, many of the great nobles were 
sunk in coarse orgies ; and the rabble of Rome, defiled with the 
offscourings of all nations, was ignorant, cruel, and wicked. In 
other great cities, also, the mob was wretched and vicious. 

Particular evil customs shock the modern reader. To avoid 
the cost and trouble of rearing children, the lower classes, with 
horrible frequency and indifference, exposed their infants to 
die. The old family discipline was gone. The growth of 
divorce was railed at, as in our own day, by the satirists of the 
times. Slavery threw its shadow across the Roman world. At 
the gladiatorial sports, delicate ladies thronged the benches of 
the amphitheater, without shrinking at the agonies of the dying ; 
and the games grew in size and in fantastic character until they 
seem to us a blot beyond anything else in human history. 

Under Trajan one set of games continued 123 days. In a single day's 
games, when the Coliseum was first opened by Titus, 5000 animals were 
slain. The jaded spectators demanded ever new novelties, and the ex- 
hibitors sought out fantastic forms of combat. Thousands of men 
fought at once in hostile armies. Sea fights were imitated on artificial 
lakes. Distant regions were scoured for new varieties of beasts to slay 
and be slain. Women entered the arena as gladiators, and dwarfs en- 
gaged one another in deadly combat. The wealthy aristocrats laid wagers 
upon the skill of their favorite gladiators, as with us at the prize ring. 

630. The Danger of Exaggeration.^ — Yet it is certain that a 
picture from such materials alone is grossly misleading. There 

1 Capes' Early Empire, 223-227, has a wholesome statement about the dan* 
ger of exaggerating the evils. 



§630] 



MORALS 



517 



was much good, though it made less noise than the evil. Some 
old, rude virtues were going out of fashion ; but new, gentler 
virtues were coming in. The unexhausted populations of North 
Italy and of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, and the great middle 
class over all the empire, remained essentially sound in morals. 
Satirists like Juvenal (§ 628) or moralists like Tacitus (§ 628) 




The Way of Tombs at Pompeii. 

The higher stones, at the edge of the pavement, are '* burial stones," each with 
its inscription. The inscriptions quoted on page 518 and in § 634 come 
mainly from these stones. 

are no more to be accepted as authority, without correction, than 
racy wits and scolding preachers for our own day. 

On the whole, the first two centuries show a steady gain, even 
if we look only at pagan society. The Letters of Pliny reveal, in 
the court circle itself, a society high-minded, refined, and vir- 
tuous. Pliny is a type of the finest gentleman of to-day, in del- 
icacy of feeling, sensitive honor, genial and thoughtful courtesy.^ 

1 There is a charming essay, A Roman Gentleman under the Empire (Pliny). 
by Harriet Walters Preston, in The Atlantic for June. 1886. Thomas' Roman 



518 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 631 

Marcus Aureiius and his father illustrate like qualities on the 
throne. Epictetus (§ 627) shows them in slavery. All these 
people are surrounded by friends whom they think good and 
happy. One husband inscribed upon his wife's monument: 
*'Only once did she cause me sorrow — and that was by her 
death." Another praises in his wife " purity, loyalty, affection, 
a sense of duty, a gentle nature, and whatever other qualities 
God would wish to give woman." The tombstone of a poor 
physician declares that " to all the needy who came to him, he 
gave his services free of charge." Over the grave of a little 
girl there is inscribed : " She rests here in the soft cradle of 
the Earth . . . comely, charming, keen of mind, gay in her 
talk and play. If there be aught of compassion in the gods, 
bear her aloft to the stars and the light." 

631. The Bright Side. — Over against each evil we can set a 
good. The position of women was improved- Charity to the 
poor abounded. Animals were treated more kindly. Slavery 
grew milder. The sympathies of men broadened. Law showed 
a gentler spirit. A harsh skepticism toward religion had pre- 
vailed among the educated classes during the last days of the 
Republic ; but under the Empire, this gave way to more devout 
religious feeling. All this was true without referring to the 
Christianpartof society, of which we shall speak later (§§ 652 if.). 

An interesting " back to the land " movement proved that 
Roman gentlemen could still value simple delights above the 
artificial pleasures of the court. Martial (§ 627) writes of 
country life with true enthusiasm, — where a man can be " rich 
with the spoils of grove and field, unfold before the fire his 
well-filled hunting nets, lift the leaping fish from the quivering 
line, draw forth the yellow honey from the cask, while his own 
eggs are cooking over a fire that has not cost a penny. My 
wish [he concludes] is that the man who loves not me may not 
love this." 

And if we suspect that there was some literary affectation in 

life, chs. xi and xiv, and Capes' Antonines, ch. v, present similar pictures. 
• See Davis' Readings, II, Nos. 69, 70, 74, and especially 88, 106, 107. 



§632] POSITION OF WOMEN 519 

this praise by an ex-courtier, the same suspicion cannot be held 
in the case of a certain Sirailis, an iron-handed soldier who had 
been commander of the praetorians in Hadrian's time. At 
sixty-nine he resigned his high office and spent his last seven 
years among green fields. On his tombstone he caused to be 
carved : " Here lies Similis, who existed seventy-six years, and 
lived seven. '^^ 

Some of the lines of improvement which have been mentioned 
are noted in more detail in the following sections. 

632. Woman became freer ,2 the equal of man in law, and his 
companion instead of his servant in the family. A higher view 
of marriage appeared than ever before in pagan world. Plu- 
tarch and Seneca, for the first time in history, insisted that 
men be judged by the same moral standard as women ; and Ro- 
man law adopted this principle in the decrees of Antoninus and 
the maxims of Ulpian (§ 643). Plutarch's precepts on mar- 
riage " fall little if at all below any of modern days," and his 
own family life afforded a beautiful ideal of domestic happiness.^ 
Plutarch urges the highest intellectual culture for women ; and 
says Lecky : — 

"Intellectual culture was much diffused among them, and we meet 
with noble instances of large and accomplished minds united with all the 
gracefulness of intense womanhood and all the fidelity of the truest love. 
. . . When Paetus, a noble Roman, was ordered by Nero to put 
himself to death, his friends knew that his wife Arria, with her love and 
her heroic fervor, would not survive him. Her son-in-law tried to dissuade 
her from suicide by saying : ' If / am called upon to perish, would you 
wish your daughter to die with me ? ' She answered, ' Yes, if she has 
then lived with you as long and happily as I with Paetus.' Paetus for a 
moment hesitated to strike the fatal blow, but Arria, taking the dagger, 
plunged it deeply into her breast, and, dying, handed it to her husband, 
exclaiming, ' My Paetus, it does not pain ! '" 



1 Dr. Davis' Influence of Wealth in Imperial Rome, 284-287, gives these 
and other illustrations. 

2 On the position of women, there is a good discussion in Lecky, European 
if orals, eh. v. 

8 Lecky, European Morals, II, 289. 



520 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 633 

Women became physicians, — though, their practice was re- 
stricted to other women, — and they entered various trades. As 
in our day, however, they seem to have had more time or more 
taste for literature. They wrote much ; but no great literary 
work from a woman's pen has survived for us. The scolding 
Juvenal, whose vanity seems to have been offended, rails at the 
sort of woman who at table " weighs in the balance Homer and 
Virgil [so that] teachers of rhetoric are vanquished [and] not 
even a lawyer . . . may speak." And again, " I hate the woman 
who is always bringing up grammatical rules, and who recalls 
verses unknown to me, and corrects the words of an unpolished 
friend, which a man would not notice." 

Certainly, the women of the Roman Empire possessed a 
higher freedom and more culture than their sex was to find 
again anywhere in the world until the nineteenth century. 

633. Charity. — There was a vast amount of public and pri- 
vate charity. Homes for poor children and orphan girls were 
established. Wealthy men loaned money below the regular 
rate of interest, and provided free medicine for the poor. 
Tacitus tells how, after a great accident near Rome, the rich 
opened their houses and gave their wealth to relieve the suf- 
ferers. Every city, large or small, received large gifts of 
money from its wealthy sons — not only to build temples and 
libraries and town halls, and to set up noble statues, but also 
to repair pavements and build sewers (Davis' Readings, II, 
No. 77). 

True, there was a dark side to this sort of generosity. The people 
came to do less and less for themselves, and fell more and more com- 
pletely under the control of great riches. They came to choose only 
wealthy men for public office, because of the expectation of public bene- 
factions from them. Ever louder grew the cry for " bread and games " 
(§ 558). 

634. Kindness to Animals. — Literature for the first time 
abounds in tender interest in animals. Cato in the days of 
the " virtuous Republic " had advised selling old or infirm 
slaves; Plutarch in the "degenerate Empire" could never 



§635] A GENTLER SOCIETY 521 

bring himself to sell an ox in its old age. We find protests 
even against hunting ; and severe punishments were inflicted 
for wanton cruelty to animals. There seems little doubt that 
animals were better treated under the pagan Empire than in 
southern Europe to-day. Some inscriptions on tombstones 
testify to a real love for dogs. A small pet " barks fiercely " 
if her mistress took up another dog. One very pretty set of 
verses commemorated a mistress' grief at the death of a " be- 
loved companion " of the family, whose intelligence is praised 
as almost human, and who " was wont to come to our table, and 
to lick with eager tongue the dish my hands held out while 
thy tail didst show thy 'joy.'' 

It is true, the gladiatorial games continued. They were de- 
fended by arguments like those used for bullfights, bear bait- 
ing, cockfighting, and the prize ring in later times. But at 
last critics began to be heard (Davis' Readings, II, No. 97), and 
Marcus Aurelius made the combats harmless for his time by 
compelling the use of blunted swords. Moreover, it is true be- 
yond doubt — so strong is fashion even in morals — that the 
passion for these inhuman games was not inconsistent with 
humanity in other respects. 

635. Slavery grew milder. Emancipation became so common 
that faithful household slaves were freed commonly after six 
years' service. The horrible story of PoUio (a noble who threw 
a slave alive to the lampreys in a fish pond for carelessly break- 
ing a precious vase) is often given as typical of Koman treat- 
ment of slaves. This is misleading. That crime occurred at 
the very beginning of the Empire, while there was yet no check 
in law upon a master ; but even then, Augustus, by a stretch 
of humane despotism, ordered all the tableware in Pollio's house 
to be broken and his fish ponds to be filled up. Evidently, such 
a master was socially ostracized. 

Soon afterward a master was murdered by a slave. The Sen- 
ate, after bitter opposition, voted to put the entire household of 
slaves to death, according to the old custom of the Eepublic. 
The city populace rose in indignant insurrection to prevent such 



522 



THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 636 



unjust cruelty ; and in Hadrian's time, the law was modified, so 
as to apply only to those slaves who could be proven to have been 
near enough to hear the master's cries. During the reign of 
Nero, a special judge was appointed to hear the complaints of 
slaves and to punish c/uelties to them, and Seneca tells us that 
cruel masters were jeered in the streets. Law began to protect 
the slave, and imperial edicts improved his condition (§§ 586, 
588). "Is not the slave of the same stuff as you, his master ! " 
exclaims Seneca. (See Davis' Headings, II, No. 98.) 

636. Sympathies Broadened. — The unity of the vast Roman 
world prepared the way for the thought that all men are brothers. 
Philosophers were fond of dwelling upon the idea. Said Mar- 
cus Aurelius, " As emperor I am a Roman ; but as a man my 




A Detail from Trajan's Column (page 510) : Trajan sacrificing a bull 
at the bridge over the Danube, just completed by his soldiers. This bridge 
was a remarkable structure, — probably the most wonderful bridge in the 
world until the era of iron and steel brJdge-wpr^ jn the nineteenth century. 



§638] A GENTLER SOCIETY 523 

city is the world." Even the rabble in the Roman theater was 
wont to applaud the line of Terence : " I am a man ; no calam- 
ity that can affect man is without meaning to me." 

The age prided itself, justly, upon its enlightened humanity, 
much as our own does. Trajan instructed a provincial governor 
not to act upon anonymous accusations, because such conduct 
" does not belong to our ageJ' 

637. The Gentler Spirit of Imperial Law. — This broad human- 
ity was reflected in imperial law. The harsh law of the Re- 
public became humane. Women and children shared its pro- 
tection. Torture was limited. The rights of the accused were 
better recognized. From this time dates the maxim, " Better to 
let the guilty escape than to punish the innocent." " All men 
by the law of nature are equal " ^ became a law maxim, through 
the great jurist Ulpian (§ 643). Slavery, he argued, had been 
created only by the lower law, enacted not by nature but by 
man. Therefore, if one man claimed another as his slave, the 
benefit of any possible doubt was to be given to the one so 
claimed. It is curious to remember that the rule was just the 
other way in nearly ail Christian countries through the Middle 
Ages, and in the United States under the Fugitive Slave laws 
from 1793 to the Civil War. 

638. Extracts from the Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius (to show 
the highest Pagan Morality) : — 

Aurelius thanks the gods "for a good grandfather, good parents, a 
good sister, good teachers, good associates, and good friends." 

" From my mother I learned piety, and abstinence not only from evil 
deeds but from evil thoughts." From a tutor, "... not to credit 
miracle workers and jugglers, with their incantations and driving away 
of demons ; ... to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial 
understanding of a book." 

"There are briers in the road? Then turn aside from them, but do 
not add, ' Why were such things made ? ' Thou wilt be ridiculed by a 
man who is acquainted with nature, as thou wouldst be by a carpenter or 

1 This maxim was to work revolutions in distant ages. It played a part in 
both the American and the French Revolutions of the eighteenth century. 



524 THE ROMAN EMPIRE, 31 B.C.-192 A.D. [§ 638 

shoemaker if thou didst complain that there were shavings and cuttings 
in his shop." 

" All that is from the gods is full of providence." 

" The best way to avenge thyself is not to become like the wrong-doer." 

" When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those 
who live with thee." 

"Love men; revere the gods." [Does not this come near "the two 
commandments " ?] 

" Think of thyself as a member of the great human body, — else thou 
dost not love men from thy heart." 

" Suppose that men curse thee, or kill thee ... if a man stand by a 
pure spring and curse it, the spring does not cease to send up wholesome 
water." 

" To say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, 
and all that belongs to the soul is a dream and a vapor ; life is a warfare 
and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion. What then is there 
about which we ought seriously to employ ourselves ? This one thing — 
just thoughts and social acts, words that do not lie, and temper which ac- 
cepts gladly all that happens." 

" Why then dost thou not wait in tranquillity for thy end, whether it be 
extinction or removal to another life ? And until that time comes, what 
is sufficient ? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless them, 
and to do good to men, and to practice tolerance and self-restraint? " 

'* Everything harmonizes with me which is harmonious to thee, Uni- 
verse ! Nothing is too early or too late which is in due time for thee ! 
Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature ! From thee 
are all things ; in thee are all things ; to thee all things return. The poet 
says, Dear city of Cecrops ; and shall not I say. Dear city of Zeus ? " 

" Many grains of frankincense upon the same altar ; one falls before, 
another after ; but it makes no difference." 

" Pass through this little space of time conformably to Nature, and end 
thy journey in content — just as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing 
Nature who produced it and thanking the tree on which it grew." 

" What is it to me to live in a universe if devoid of gods ? But in truth 
gods do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put the 
means in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evil." 

" It is sweet to live if there be gods, and sad to die if there be none." i 



1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 107, gives more of these extracts ; and No. 105 
gives similar teachings of the slave philosopher, Epictetus. No. 106 gives 
letters of Marcus Aurelius when a younger man, — showing views of a happy 
home life. 



§638] A GENTLER SOCIETY 525 

For Further Reading. — The treatment of the first two centuries of 
the Empire is so full in the text, and the foot-note references for brief 
readings have been so numerous, that no other reading will be " specially 
suggested^'''' except the remaining numbers on the period in Davis' Bead- 
ings, II, to No. 108. But for those who wish to read further on th-is im- 
portant period, the best and most readable material will be found in 
Jones' Boman Empire (an excellent one-volume work), chs. i-vi ; Capes' 
Early Empire and The Antonines ; Pelham's Outlines, 413-545 ; Thomas' 
Boman Life; Preston and Dodge's Private Life of the Bomans ; or 
Johnston's Private Life of the Bomans. 

Exercise. — To the table of dates, add 9 a.d., 14, 69, 180. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE DECLINE IN THE THIRD CENTURY 

THE STORY OF THE EMPERORS 

639. The " Barrack Emperors," 193-284 A.D. — The misrule of 
Commodus had again left the throne the sport of the soldiery. 
There followed ninety years of twenty-seven "barrack em- 
perors," set up by the praetorians or the legions, and engaged in 
frequent civil war. All but four of the twenty-seven emperors 
were slain in some revolt ; and, of these four, two fell in bat- 
tle against barbarian invaders. 

640. The Throne for Sale. — After the murder of Commodus, 
the praetorians set up as Emperor a worthy Senator, Pertinax ; 
but in less than three months they mutinied and slew him. 
Then they auctioned off the imperial purple to the highest 
bidder, knocking it down to Julianus, a rich noble, who had 
offered $1000 apiece to each of the 12,000 guards. (See Davis' 
Readings, II, No. 71.) 

The three great armies (on the Ehine, the Danube, and the 
Euphrates) answered this disgraceful news by rebellion. Each 
army " proclaimed " its favorite general. Septimius Severus, 
the commander on the Danube, was the nearest of the rivals to 
the capital. By swift action he secured the prize. 

641. Septimius Severus (193-21 1) was a native of North Africa. 
He was a clear-headed, determined, industrious man, merciless 
and cruel toward his foes, but sternly conscientious about the 
duties of his great office. He restored order and unity to the 
empire, and repulsed the barbarians. Most of his reign was 
spent in the East, where the Parthians were growing more and 
more dangerous ; but he died in Britain — at the opposite fron- 
tier — whei:e he had just been strengthening Hadrian's wall and 

526 



§644] ''BARRACK EMPERORS" 527 

repelling the Scots. He greatly admired the Antonine em- 
perors, and took the name Antoninus, in addition to his own. 
Another persecution of the Christians took place in his reign. 
For the watchword on the night of his death, he gave " Let us 
work " (" Lahoremus "). 

642. Ten years of anarchy followed, Severus' son, CaracaUa, 
was a vicious weakling, whose six-year reign (211-217) is nota- 
ble for the extension of citizenship to all free men in the em- 
pire (§ 616). Caracalla was murdered by his guards, as were 
his two unimportant successors (Macrinus, 217-218. and Elaga- 
balus, 218-222). 

643. Alexander Severus (222-235) was a native of Syria. Like 
his predecessors, he was set up, and finally murdered, by the 
soldiery. He was a well-meaning, gentle youth (the nearest 
heir of the house of Septimius Severus) ; but he lacked the 
stern strength needful for his place. His court was simple 
and pure. ^'Do not to another what thou wouldst not have 
done to thyself " was the motto inscribed upon the entrance to 
the royal palace. Septimius had had for his chief minister 
Papinian, a great jurist. Alexander Severus, in like manner, 
was assisted by Ulpian (§ 637), the leading jurist of his day, 
and the chief adviser of the Emperor ; but Ulpian was finally 
murdered by the soldiery at the helpless Emperor's feet. The 
reign was troubled also on the frontiers by new enemies, — by 
a new Persian kingdom which had now overthrown the Par- 
thians in the East, and, on the Rhine, by fresh German peoples. 
But, in spite of these troubles to court and to frontier, for the 
bulk of the empire the thirteen years of Severus were an oasis 
of peace and plenty in the dreary third century. 

644. For the next thirty-three years (235-268) phantom emperors fol- 
low one another in bewildering confusion which it is profitless to trace. 1 
Many reigns are counted by days, not by years. Only one able ruler ap- 
peared (Decius, 249-251) ; and, after two years, he fell in a disastrous 

1 Maximus, 235-238. Gordianus I and II, Pupienus, Balbinus, 238. Gor- 
dianus III, 238-244. Philippus, 244-249. Decius, 249-251. Gallus, iEmilianus 
Valerian, Gallienus, 251-268. 



528 THE EMPIRE — THIRD CENTURY [§645 

battle against the Goths near the Danube. This brief reign was marked 
by a stern persecution of the Christians. The most worthy of the succes- 
sors of Decius in this troubled period was Valerian ; and he was defeated 
and captured by Sapor, the Persian king, and died in bitter and humiliat- 
ing captivity. In the sixties, so many rival claimants for the throne ap- 
peared that the period is known as the Age of the " Thirty Tyrants." 

645. Claudius II. — The Empire seemed in ruins. It was 
sunk in anarchy and split into fragments by the jealousies of 
rival legions; and while these false defenders .turned their 
swords upon one another, the barbarians swarmed over every 
frontier and penetrated toward the heart of the Empire. 

Happily strong hands grasped the scepter. The army it- 
self wearied of disorder. In 268 it set a great general, Clau- 
dius, upon the throne. Claudius found his chief task with the 
Goths. That German people had worked their savage will in 
the Balkan provinces for almost twenty years — since the 
time of Decius. They were now defeated after a long cam- 
paign. Then Claudius died quietly in his bed, — the first 
emperor of whom that was true since Septimius Severus. 

646. Aurelian. — To the world the death of Claudius mat- 
tered little, because his successor was an even greater ruler. 
Aurelian (270-275) was an Illyrian peasant, who had risen 
from the ranks to high military commands. The achievements 
of his reign of less than five years rival those of the first 
Caesar. He reorganized the army and restored the Empire. 
The barbarians were driven back beyond the Rhine and 
the Danube.^ Gaul, which for some years had become vir- 
tually a separate kingdom, was recovered. Zenobia, the great 
Queen who had set up a rival Arabian empire at Palmyra, was 
brought captive to Rome (Davis' Readings^ II, No. 73). Pros- 
perity began to return ; but death snatched away the Emperor, 
just when he was ready to take up the work of civil reform. 

Once in this reign, the Alemanni, a German people, pene- 
trated to the Po, and threw all Italy into a panic. When they 
had been repulsed, Aurelian built walls about Rome. Since 

1 Dacia was abandoned to them for their home. 



§ 6^^ 



BARRACK EMPERORS" 



529 



Hannibal's day, that proud capital had feared no invader and 
had spread out far beyond her earlier ramparts. The new 




1, 


Coliseum. 


10. 


Temple of Jupiter Capi 


2. 


Arch of Constantine. 




tolinus. 


3. 


Arch of Titus. 


11. 


Arch. 


4. 


Via Sacra. 


12. 


Column of Trajan. 


5. 


Via Nova. 


13. 


Column of Antoninus. 


6. 


Vicus Tuscus. 


14. 


Baths of Agrippa. 


7. 


Vicus Jugarius. 


15. 


Pantheon. 


8. 


Arch of Septimiw^s Seve- 


16. 


Theater of Pompey. 




rus. 


17. 


Portico of Pompey. 


9. 


Clivus Capitolinus. 


18. 


Circus Flaminius. 



19. Theater of Marcellus. 

20. Forum Holitorium. 

21. Forum Boarium. 

22. Mausoleum of Augustus. 

23. Mausoleum of Hadrian. 

24. Baths of Constantine. 

25. Baths of Diocletian. 

26. Baths of Titus. 

27. Baths of Caracalla. 
2S. Amphitheatrum Cas- 

trense. 



walls of Aurelian, needful and grand as the work was, were 
a somber symbol of a new age. 



530 THE EMPIRE — THIRD CENTURY [§647 

Six reigns ^ fill the next nine years, — three of them the 
reigns of able and well-meaning men ; and then came Diocle- 
tian to complete Aurelian's work. 

TOPICAL SURVEY OF THE THIRD CENTURY 

647. In general, the third century of the Empire, from Mar- 
cus Aurelius to Diocletian (180-284), is a period of decline. 
The political anarchy of the period has been treated briefly. 
There was a similar falling away in the defense of the frontiers, 
in material prosperity, and in literary activity. These features 
will now be noted in some detail. 

648. Renewal of Barbarian Attacks. — For the first two cen- 
turies the task of the legions was an easy one, but in the reign 
of the peaceful Marcus Aurelius the torrent of barbarian inva- 
sion began again to beat upon the ramparts of civilization. 
The Moorish tribes were on the move in Africa ; the Parthians, 
whom Trajan had humbled, again menaced the Euphrates; and 
Tartars, Slavs, Finns, and Germans burst upon the Danube. 
Aurelius gave the years of his reign to campaigns on the 
frontier. 

For the time, indeed, Rome beat off the attack ; but from 
this date she stood always on the defensive, with exhaustless 
swarms of fresh enemies surging about her defenses ; and after 
the prosperous reigns of Septimius and Alexander Severus they 
began to burst through. 

Early in the third century the Parthian empire gave way to 
a new Persian kingdom under the Sassanidae kings. This 
Persian power for a time seemed the great danger to the Roman 
world. In 250 and 260 its armies poured across the Euphrates. 
The Emperor Valerian was taken prisoner (§ 644), and Antioch 
was captured. New German tribes, too, — the mightier foe, 
as events were to prove, — appeared on the European fron- 
tier. The Alemanni crossed the Rhine and maintained them- 
selves in Gaul for two years (236-238). In the disorders of 

1 Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Carus, Carinus, Numerianus ; 275-282. 



§649] GENERAL DECLINE 531 

the fifties, bands of Franks swept over Gaul and Spain. The 
Goths seized the province of Dacia (§ 646), and raided the 
Balkan European provinces. In the sixties, Gothic fleets, of 
five hundred sail, issuing from the Black Sea, ravaged the 
Mediterranean coasts, sacking Athens, Corinth, Argos, and 
Sparta (Davis' Readings, II, No. 72). 

Claudius II and Aurelian, however, restored the old frontiers, 
except for Dacia, and chastised the barbarians on all sides. 
The worst of the evil was confined to the middle third of the 
century ; but a fatal blow had been struck at the military fame 
of Rome. 

649. Decline of Population and of Material Prosperity. — By 
the irony of fate, the reign of the best of emperors marks also 
another great calamity. In the year 166, a new Asiatic plague 
swept from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, carrying off, we are 
told, half the population of the empire. 

From Aurelius to Aurelian, at brief intervals, the pestilence 
returned, desolating wide regions and demoralizing industry. 
Even vigorous young societies take a long time to recover from 
a single blow of this kind.^ To the Roman Empire, the re- 
peated disaster was the more deadly because population had 
already become stationary, if it were not indeed already on the 
decline. 

The reasons for this previous falling off in population are not 
altogether clear. The wide-spread slave system was no doubt 
one cause. A high standard of comfort and a dislike for large 
families, as in modern France, was another. But these seem 
insufficient. It is hardly possible to charge the evil to immo- 
rality, since the victory of Christianity does not seem to have 
checked it afterward. Whatever the cause, the fact of the de- 
cline is beyond question ; and so the gaps left by pestilence re- 
mained unfilled. "Year by year, the human harvest was bad." 
Tlie fatal disease of the later Empire was want of men. There 

1 In the fourteenth century, England suffered from a pestilence known as 
the " Black Death " ; and it took the island a hundred years to recover from 
the terrible ravages of that plague. 



532 THE EMPIRE — THIRD CENTURY [§650 

followed a decline in material prosperity and in tax-paying 
power. 

650. Slavery The civil wars involved vast loss of life. The barba- 
rian raids sometimes swept off the population of whole provinces, to die in 
bitter slavery in the German forests. Marcus Aurelius once compelled 
the Quadi, one German people, to surrender 50,000 such Roman captives. 

But Roman slavery itself, within the empire, was the most power- 
ful cause of this decline of population. The wealthy classes of society 
commonly do not have large families. Our population grows from the 
large families of the working classes. But in the Roman world, the place 
of our free workmen was taken largely by slaves, and slaves rarely left 
families. If they had children, the master " exposed " the infants, 
since it was easier and more convenient to buy a new slave (from the 
captures made by the legions on the frontiers) than to rear one. 

Besides, the competition of slave labor ground into the dust what free 
labor there was, — so that working people could not rear a large family, 
and were driven to the cruel practice of exposure of infants — which 
ancient morality allowed. 

651. Decay in Literature. — Great names in poetry, history, 
and science cease. Philosophy and theology become a dreary 
waste of controversy. We have multitudes of "Apologies" 
for Christianity from the Church Fathers, like Lactantius, Ter- 
tullian, and Origen (all three, Africans), and volume upon vol- 
ume against them from the New Platonists, like Plotiyius and 
his disciple Porphyry (Asiatics). Works on Christian doctrine 
and practice were written also by St. Clement (of Alexandria) 
and St. Cyprian (of Carthage). 

The one advance is in Roman law (§ 637). This is the age 
of the great jurists, of whom JJlpian is the most famous. But 
even this progress is confined to the early part of the century, 
closing with the reign of Alexander Severus. 



For Further Reading. — Davis' Readings, applicable to the chapter, 
have all been referred to in the notes or text. Jones' Boman Empire, 
chs. vii-ix, covers the period. Ware's Zenobia (fiction) vnll be read with 
pleasure by some students. 



CHAPTER XL 
RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 

652. In Judea. — The most deeply important event of the 
three centuries from Augustus to Aurelian has been left for 
separate treatment in this chapter. All high school students 
know the story of the life and work of Christ and of his 
immediate disciples; but a brief review of the facts will 
give them a setting in the world history which we have just 
surveyed. 

Jesus of Nazareth was born, probably in 4 b.c.,^ at Bethle- 
hem, a hamlet of Judea. He grew up as the son of a humble 
carpenter in an obscure corner of the Roman world. In 
26 A.D., in the reign of Tiberius, he began to teach publicly 
throughout Judea. The poorer people in the country districts 
heard him gladly ; and the priests, angry at his quiet disregard 
of religious ceremonial, began to fear his influence. Judea was 
seething with discontent at Roman rule, and the masses were 
looking eagerly for a miraculous Messiah to appear, to lead them 
in a glorious war against the foreign conqueror and to restore the 
Jewish empire of David and Solomon. Many of those who 
gathered about Jesus believed that he would do these things. 
In vain did he declare to them, " My kingdom is not of this 
world," and urge that they should "render unto Caesar the 
things that are Caesar's. " These expectations and the rumors 
among the people gave a handle to his enemies. To destroy 
him, the priests declared that he called himself King of the 
Jews, and that he was stirring up rebellion against Rome. 

1 The date of Christ's birth was computed some six hundred years late*' 
by a Greek monk. We know now that the monk put the date at lea?* 
four years too late. Some scholars think the true date was the year whicb 
we call 7 B.C. ; but the whole question of exact dates in Christ's life is obscure' 

533 



534 THE ROMAN EMPIRE (§653 

The highest Jewish tribunal declared hiin guilty; but it 
could not impose a death penalty without the approval of the 
Roman governor. That officer, Pontius Pilate, declared that 
he found no truth in the charges, but with careless Roman 
contempt, he let the clamoring priests have their way, and 
delivered Jesus to them to be crucified with two thieves. 

653. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. — The public life of 
Jesus filled only three years ; and his work had been confined 
to Palestine. In spite of cruel persecutions, his followers 
there continued to practice his teachings and to preach them ; 
but at first they seem to have felt that the new religion was 
designed only for their own " chosen people," the Jews. Soon, 
however, there arose among them a great man with a nobler 
vision. 

Paul was a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, " no mean city," and 
he held the prized Roman citizenship. His family, however, 
were Jews, and he had been brought up, he tells us, in the 
strictest sect of the old Hebrew religion. After the crucifix- 
ion, Paul took a zealous part in breaking up the little Christian 
congregations ; but after aiding in the slaying of the glorious 
martyr, Stephen, Paul was himself converted to the truth he 
had been persecuting. Then he soon became one of the leading 
apostles. His early life and his education had given him more 
acquaintance with the great world than the other disciples had, 
and he saw that Christianity ought to become the religion of 
all peoples. 

The rest of his life he gave to ceaseless preaching in Asia 
and Europe, supporting himself meanwhile by his trade of tent- 
making. He founded churches in Antioch and in other cities 
throughout Syria and Cilicia, and crossed over to Macedonia 
and Greece, preaching especially in Philippi, Thessalonica, 
Athens, and Corinth. On his return to Jerusalem, he was 
arrested by the Jewish priests, and the Roman governor was 
about to condemn him to death. His Roman citizenship saved 
his life for the time ; and, after a weary imprisonment, he 
"appealed to Caesar " (the Emperor Nero), as a Roman citizen 



§654] RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 535 

had the privilege of doing. Accordingly he was sent to Rome, 
where he seems to have lived for some years under arrest but 
with considerable freedom of action, preaching to Christian 
congregations there and corresponding with his converts in 
other parts of the world. He perished in the persecution after 
the great fire, in the year 64 or 65 (§ 579). 

654. The Growth of the Faith. — At the death of Paul, some 
thirty years after the death of Christ, there were Christian 
congregations, we know from the Book of Acts, in all the large 
cities of the eastern part of the empire and in Rome. These 
congregations were made up almost solely, as yet, from the 
humblest classes of society, — slaves and poor laborers. 
Women were particularly numerous and influential among 
them. The religion of mercy and gentleness and hope ap- 
pealed especially to the weak and downtrodden. So far, it 
got no hearing from the rich and powerful and happy. To 
the Roman historians of the age, Christianity was known not 
at all, or only by vague rumors, as a vicious sect of the despised 
Jews. The moralist Tacitus (§ 628) was a boy in Rome during 
the great fire in Nero's time. Fifty years later (115 a.d.), he 
wrote an account of it. Even then he knew of the Christians, 
it is plain, only by misleading scandal, though he is the first 
pagan writer to give any important mention of them. 

Nero had himself been accused of setting the conflagration, explains 
Tacitus: "Therefore, to stop this rumor, he [Nero] falsely charged 
with guilt, and punished with fearful tortures, the persons whom the 
vulgar call Christians, and who were already branded with deserved in- 
famy. Christus, from whom the name was derived, was executed as a 
criminal, when Tiberius was imperator, by Pontius Pilate, the procurator 
in Judea. But the pernicious superstition^ checked for the time, again 
broke out, not only in Judea, where the mischief began, but even in 
Rome, the meeting place of all horrible and immoral practices from all 
parts of the world." 

Tacitus regards this charge of incendiarism as absurd ; but 
he speaks of the Christians again as proven " haters of the 
human race," and has no sympathy to spare for them. But 



536 THE ROMAN EMPIRE [§653 

in the third century, in spite of various persecutions (§§ 659 ff.), 
Christianity had spread rapidly over all parts of the empire 
and had begun to count converts among the noble and the 
learned, even in palaces and courts. Even the growing misery 
of that period helped to turn men's hearts toward this religion 
of peace and mercy, with its promise of the future. Christian 
writings, from this time on, make up the bulk of Roman 
literature. 

655. Some Inner Sources of Power. — A few individuals of 
the pagan world, like Socrates and Marcus Aurelius, thought 
of God, duty, and immortality in a way similar to the teachings 
of Christ. But Christianity made these lofty speculations of 
a few great intellects "the truisms of the village school, the 
proverbs of the cottage and the alley." For most people, the 
old gods had been vague forces which must be worshiped in 
order that they might not send afflictions upon men. This 
pagan feeling gave way now to a loving trust in God as a tender 
Father. The old shadowy or gloomy future was replaced in 
men's minds by confidence in a blissful life beyond the grave. 
The old worship had been largely a matter of minute ceremo- 
nial and form. Christianity taught that the essence of religion 
consisted in love, hope, purity, and mutual helpfulness. Such 
features made the new religion the greatest power that ever 
worked upon the souls of men. 

656. Debt to the Empire. — In three distinct ways the Empire 
had made preparation for Christianity. (1) The gentle tend- 
ency of the age (§ § 633-637) made easier the victory of a re- 
ligion of humility and self-sacrifice. (2) The political machin- 
ery of the Empire had important influence upon the organization 
of Church government (§ 681) . (3) An incalculable debt is due 
to the unity of the vast Roman world. This third point must 
have fuller explanation here. 

Except for the widespread rule of Rome, Christianity could 
hardly have reached beyond Judea. The early Christian writ- 
ers recognized this, and regarded the creation of the Empire as 
a providential preparation. No other government was tolerant^ 



§657] RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 537 

enough to permit the spread of such worship. The Empire 
had tolerated broadly the religions of all nations (except those 
believed to be seriously immoral), and so had melted down sharp 
local prejudices. The union of diverse peoples under the Em- 
pire, with a common language, common sentiments and customs, 
a common government, and habits of easy intercourse, laid the 
foundation for their spiritual union in Christianity. If Asia 
Minor, Greece, and Italy had remained split up in hundreds of 
small states, with different languages and institutions, how 
could Paul have made his way from city to city, or have found 
his audiences, or have been able to speak. to them? And, a 
little later, if Christianity had not already become the religion 
of the mighty and venerated Empire, it surely would not so 
easily have been accepted by the rude barbarians about the 
frontier. 

657. Persecutions. — The Empire encouraged freedom of 
thought upon almost all subjects. When Marcus Aurelius 
appointed teachers to the endowed " chairs " of philosophy in 
the universities, he did not think of inquiring whether their 
philosophy agreed with his own. Why then did he, and other 
^' good " emperors, persecute the Christians ? 

The fiendish torments with which Nero amused the brutal court and 
populace have been noticed ; but also we have noted that this first "per- 
secution " was not strictly a religious persecution, and that it was prac- 
tically confined to Rome. We are concerned now with the more 
important persecutions of the second and third centuries. 

Fifty years after Nero, Pliny was a provincial governor in 
Asia, under Trajan, Pliny was a high souled gentleman of re- 
fined tastes (§ 630). His correspondence with Trajan (happily 
preserved) shows that the populace hated the new sect as they 
hated no other strange religion, and that they stirred up the 
government incessantly to persecution. The correspondence 
shows, too, that the noblest pagan rulers, though deploring 
bloodshed, thought it right and necessary to punish by death 
the " debased superstition " of the Christians, with " the crimes 
that gather round it " (Davis' Readings, II, No. 75). 



538 THE ROMAN EMPIRE [§658 

658. The explanation of this attitude of the populace and 
the government can be found, at least in part. 

a. Rome tolerated, and supported, all religions ; but she 
expected all the inhabitants of the empire, in return, to tolerate 
and support the religion of the empire and the worship of the 
emperors. The Christians, alone, refused to do this. They 
even declared war upon all worship but their own, proclaiming 
loudly that any other was sinful and idolatrous. To the pop- 
ulace this seemed likely to bring down the wrath of the gods 
upon the whole community. To enlightened men it indicated 
at least a dangerously stubborn and treasonable temper. 

6. Secret societies were feared and forbidden by the Empire, 
on political grounds. Even the enlightened Trajan instructed 
Pliny to forbid the organization of a firemen^ s company in a 
large city of his province, because such associations were likely 
to become "factious assemblies." The church of that day was 
a vast, highly organized, widely diffused, secret society. " As 
such," says George Burton Adams, "it was not only distinctly 
illegal, but in the highest degree it was calculated to excite 
the apprehension of the government." 

c. The attitude of the Christians toward society added to 
their unpopularity. Because Christ had preached peace, many 
of them refused to join the legions, or to fight, if drafted. 
This seemed treason, inasmuch as a prime duty of the 
Roman world was to repel barbarism. Moreover, the Chris- 
tains were unsocial : they abstained from most public amuse- 
ments, as immoral, and they refused to illuminate their houses 
or garland their portals in honor of national triumphs. 

d. Clean lives marked the early Christians, to a notable 
degree. Every sin was punished before the whole congregation. 
The church was a vast association for mutual helpfulness in 
pure living. Any member who was known to have worshiped 
pagan gods, or blasphemed, or borne false witness, was dis- 
missed from Christian fellowship. But, strangely enough, 
pagan society knew nothing of this side of the early church. 
The Jews accused the Christians of all sorts of crimes, and, 



§659] RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 539 

particularly, of horrible orgies in the secret "love-feasts" 
(communion suppers). If a child disappeared — lost or kid- 
naped by some slave-hunter — the rumor spread at once that 
it had been eaten by the Christians in their private feasts. 
Such accusations were accepted, carelessly, by Roman society, 
because the Christian meetings were secret, and because 
there had really been such licentious rites in some religions 
of the East that Rome had been forced to crush them. Pliny 
is inclined to think something of the sort true of the Chris- 
tians, though he finds no evidence of it. Pagan priests, too, 
found the offerings at the old temples falling off and their 
influence waning ; and they readily accepted and spread such 
scandals. 

Thus we have religious and social motives with the people, 
and a political motive with statesmen. It follows that the 
periods of persecution often came under those emperors who 
had the highest conception of duty. The belief in Chris- 
tian immorality disappeared before the end of the second 
century, so far as intelligent society was concerned; but 
for some time the other motives for persecution grew more 
intense. 

659. Attitude of the Government. — The first century, except 
for the horrors in Rome under Nero, afforded no persecution 
until its very close. In 95 there was a persecution, not very 
severe, and lasting only a few months. Under Trajan we see 
spasmodic local persecutions arising from popular hatred, but 
not instigated by the government. 

In Pliny's province, many persons were accused by the people, some- 
times anonymously, of being Christians. Pliny took pains to investigate, 
even using torture upon two "deaconesses." He vs^as impressed by the 
lack of evidence for anything criminal ; but when the accused men 
refused to worship Roman gods, after three warnings, "I order them 
away to prison. For I do not doubt, be their crime whatever it may, that 
their . . . inflexible obstinacy deserves punishment." The number of 
such offenders grew so rapidly, however, and they came forward so 
willingly to martyrdom, that the well-meaning Pliny was embarrassed, 
and wrote to the emperor for special instructions. Trajan directed him 



540 THE ROMAN EMPIRE [§660 

not to seek them out and to pay no attention to anonymous accusations 
(§ 636), but added that if Christians were brought before him, and then 
refused to sacrifice to the gods of the Empire, they must be punished. 

Hadrian and Antoninus Pius strove to repress popular 
outbreaks against xhe Christians. Aurelius, in the latter part 
of his reign, permitted a persecution. On the whole, during 
the second century, the Christians were legally subject to 
punishment; but there were only a few enforcements of the 
law against them, and those were local,^ not general. 

The third century was an age of anarchy in government, 
and of decline in prosperity. The few able rulers strove 
strenuously to restore society to its ancient order. This 
century, accordingly, was an age of definitely planned, impe- 
rial persecution. Says George Burton Adams : " There was 
really no alternative for men like Decius, and Valerian, and 
Diocletian. Christianity was a vast organized defiance of law." 
No return to earlier Roman conditions, such as the reformers 
hoped for, could be accomplished unless this sect was overcome. 

But by this time Christianity was too strong. It had. come 
to count nobles and rulers in its ranks. At the opening of the 
fourth century, the shrewd Constantine saw the advantage he 
might gain by enlisting it upon his side in the civil wars. Ac- 
cordingly Christianity became a favored religion (§ 675), and 
the era of persecution by the pagans ceased forever. 

660. Summary. — (i) It is possible to understand how some of the 
best emperors could persecute the church. (2) The persecution was not 
of such a character as to endanger a vital faith. (3) It did give rise to 
multitudes of heroic martyrdoms which make a glorious page in human 
history, and which by their effect upon contemporaries justify the saying, 
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." (4) The moral 
results of Christianity in the first three centuries were most apparent in 
the social life of the lower classes in the cities. The effect upon legisla- 
tion and government was to begin in the fourth century A.D. 

1 This does not detract from the heroism of those noble men and women 
who chose to die' in torture rather than deny their faith. Read the story of 
Saint Perpetua in Davis' Readings, II, No. 110, and see also Nos. Ill and 112 
for methods of repressing Christianity. 



CHAPTER XLI 
THE FOURTH CENTURY: DIOCLETIAN TO THEODOSIUS 

{The Story of the Emperors'^) 
DIOCLETIAN AND IMPERIAL REORGANIZATION 
661. The Needs of the Empire. —The third century, we have 
seen, was a period of grave disorder. The throne was the 
sport of unruly legions and the prize of military adventurers. 
The usefulness of the Empire, however, was not over. Claudius 
II and Aurelian repulsed the perils from without, which the 
anarchy in government had encouraged; and then came 
Diocletian and Gonstantine to end the internal disorder itself 

(§§ 662 ff.). 

That disorder had arisen in the mam from two causes. 

a. The machinery of government ivas too primitive. The 
emperor had too much to do. He could not ward off Persians 
on the Euphrates and Germans on the Rhine, and also super- 
vise closely the government of the forty provinces. Moreover, 
some single provinces were so important that their governors, 
especially if also victorious generals, were almost the equals 
of the emperor in power. For the third century there had 
averaged a rebellion of a governor for nearly every year. 

b. TJie succession to the throne was uncertain (§ 595). Some- 
times the emperor named his successor; sometimes the Senate 
elected its own choice. Sometimes the new ruler was the 
creature of the praetorians, sometim es the favorite of a 

iThe fourth century, like the first two, is treated in two chapters -one 
for narrative and one for a topical study. For convenience however, the 
character of the reorganized government is discussed in the first chapter, in 
connection with the reign of its creator Diocletian, and the victory of ChriSc 
tianity in connection with the reign of its champion Constantme. 

541 



542 



THE EMPIRE— FOURTH CENTURY 



[§662 



frontier army. At times, the legions had ceased to wait for 
the throne to become vacant, and made vacancies at will. 
The result had been the century of " barrack emperors." 

662. Diocletian (284-305 A.D.), a stern Illyrian soldier and 
the grandson of a slave, was himself one of these barrack 
emperors. He was the last and greatest of them, and he made 
them impossible thereafter. Seizing the scepter with a strong 
hand, he established victorious peace on all the frontiers, and 



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Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian. 
Parts of the ruins are used to form the walls of modern buildings. 

ruled firmly for twenty-one years. Toward the close of his 
reign he was induced to carry on the most terrible and thorough 
of all the persecutions of the Christians. His greatest work was 
his reorganization of the system of government. 

663. "Partnership Emperors." — Diocletian introduced a 
system of " partnership emperors." He chose as a colleague 
Maxiniian, a rough soldier but an able man and a faithful 
friend. Each of the two took the same titles and dignity ; 



§665] DIOCLETIAN'S REORGANIZATION 545 

each was Imperator Caesar Augustus. The two Augusti 
divided the empire, Diocletian taking the East, Maximian the 
West. Each then divided his half into two parts, keeping one 
under his own direct control, and intrusting the other to a 
chosen heir with the title of Caesar. The Augusti (emperors) 
kept their own capitals in the central and more settled prov- 
inces of the empire, — Diocletian at Nicomedia in Asia Minor, 
and Maximian at Milan in North Italy. To the Caesars were 
assigned the more turbulent and exposed provinces of the 
extreme East and the extreme West, with the duty of guard- 
ing the frontiers againt Persians and Germans. 

Thus the empire was marked off into four great sections, 
called prefectures, and each prefecture was put under the im- 
mediate supervision of one of the four rulers. This made 
closer oversight possible. In great measure, also, it did away 
with the danger of military adventurers seizing the throne. 
Thereafter there were certain men especially pointed out in 
advance for the succession. This was not so definitely fixed, 
it is true, as to prevent all disputes. More than one war was 
yet to be waged for the crown ; but the number of possible 
claimants was limited, and the evil was lessened. 

664. Not a Division of the Empire. — This arrangement, how- 
ever, was not a partition of the empire. It was only a division 
of the burden of administration. The power of each emperor 
in theory extended over the whole empire. An edict in any part 
was published under their joint names. It was intended that 
the rulers should act in harmony, and for much of the following 
century they did so. There were not two empires, or four. TJiere 
was only one. In fact, though equal in dignity, the two em- 
perors were usually not equal in power. Thus, throughout 
his reign, Diocletian's strong will ruled his colleague. 

665. New Machinery. — This division of duties between 
four chief rulers was only the beginning of the reform. Below 
the Augustus or the Caesar, in each prefecture, appeared a series 
of officials in regular grades, as in an army, — each officer 
under the immediate direction of the one just above him. 



544 



THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY 



[§666 



Before the time of Diocletian the forty provincial governors 
had stood directly below the emperor, who had to supervise 
them all himself. The bulky correspondence between Trajan 
and Pliny (§§ 598, 657) illustrates the minute oversight which 
industrious emperors attempted. But with average rulers, and 
with the greatest in times of special disturbance, such a system 
was likely to break down. Diocletian introduced better ma- 
chinery. The provinces were subdivided so as to make about a 
hundred and twenty. These were grouped into thirteen dioceses 
each under a vicar. The dioceses were grouped into the four 
prefectures, each under its prefect, who was subject to a Caesar 
or Augustus in person. A prefect had under him three or five 
vicars ; a vicar had under him several provincial governors. 
Each officer sifted all business that came to him from his sub- 
ordinates, sending on to his superior only the more important 
matters. 

666. Table of Prefectures and Dioceses. — The following table shows 
the grouping of these various units of government : — 

Prefectures Dioceses 

' East 15 provinces 

Egypt 6 

East \ Asia 11 " 

Pontus 11 " 

Thrace 6 " 



The East 



Macedonia | g 

Illyricum -j and Greece j 

Dacia 5 



The West « 



Italy 



Gaul 



("Italy 17 

■j Africa . . . . 6 
[ Illyria 7 



f Spain . 
The Gauls 
Britain 



7 

17 
5 



Countless 
munici- 
palities 



667. Further Precaution against Rebellion. — The provincial 
governors were now of too little importance to rebel success^ 




THE ROMAN EMPIRE 

DIVIDED INTO 

PREFECTURES AND DIOCESES. 

SCALE OF MILES 



100 200^ 300, 400 
J i 



II 



Longitude West 



10 Longitude 15 



I 



§669] DIOCLETIAN'S REORGANIZATION 545 

fully against the emperor, but another measure guarded still 
further against such disorder. The governors and vicars became 
merely civil officials. All military command was intrusted to 
other officers, who were responsible directly to the emperor. 
Thus the civil and military powers watched and checked each other. 
(Cf. § 76 for this device in the ancient Persian empire.) 

At the same time zealous precaution was taken against mili« 
tary adventurers. The powerful legions were broken up into 
small regiments. These had less corps spirit than the larger 
units had possessed and were less likely to rise against the cen- 
tral authority. 

668. Highly Organized Administration. — Most of these reforms 
were meant to distribute duties in a more workable way, 
and to fix responsibility precisely. One more change aimed 
at the same end. In the Early Empire the friends or servants 
of the emperor were often given great power in the administra- 
tion, but in an irregular and varying manner. Hadrian (§ 587) 
had made these irregular assistants into regular officers and 
advisers. Under Diocletian, each such officer became the head 
of an extensive department of government, organized in many 
ranks ; and, along with this change at court, went also the mul- 
tiplication of subordinate officials throughout the provinces. 
(See Davis' Readings, II, No. 117.) 

669. Despotic Forms. — To secure for the emperor's person 
greater reverence, Diocletian adopted the forms of monarchy. 
The Republican cloak of Augustus was cast aside, and the 
Principate (§ 592) gave way to an open despotism. At last, ab- 
solutism was avowed, and adorned with its characteristic trap- 
pings. The emperor assumed a diadem of gems and robes of 
silk and gold. He dazzled the multitude by the oriental mag- 
nificence of his court, and fenced himself round, even from his 
highest officers, with minute ceremonial and armies of function- 
aries. When subjects were allowed to approach him at all, they 
were obliged, in place of the old Republican greeting, to pros- 
trate themselves slavishly at his feet. 

Now the Senate of Rome — the last of the old Republican 



546 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§670 

influences — ceased to have part in the management of the em- 
pire. Thenceforth it was merely a city council, as the consuls 
and aediles had long before become mere city officials. 

670. Lawmaking, up to this time, had belonged in form to the 
Senate. (But see § 593.) It now became openly one of the em- 
peror's functions. The ruler made law either by publishing an 
edict to the world, or by addressing a rescript (set of directions) 
to provincial governors. The only other source of new laws 
thenceforward lay in the iriterpretation of old law, in doubtful 
cases, by the great judges (jurists) whom the emperor appointed. 

The old Republican consuls had sometimes issued edicts, in crises, and 
the early emperors had often used that power freely. But in theory^ 
until Diocletian's time, the consent of the Senate had been essential. 

Judicial interpretation had long been important as a source of virtual 
lawmaking. The maxims of Ulpian (§ 657) had all the force of law. 

671. Summary: a Centralized Despotism. — Like the reforms 
which had preserved the declining society of Caesar's day 
(§ 552), the changes introduced by Diocletian were in the direc- 
tion of absolutism. The medicine had to be strengthened: 
soon its virtue would be exhausted. Only the poison would 
remain. 

The government became a centralized despotism, a vast, highly 
complex machine. For a time its new strength warded off 
foreign foes, and it even stimulated society into fresh life. 
But the cost of the various courts and of the immense body of 
officials pressed upon the masses with crushing weight, and the 
omnipotence of the central government oppressed the minds of 
men. Patriotism died ; enterprise disappeared.^ 

1 It is desirable for students to discuss in class more fully some of these 
forms of government of which the text treats. Absolutism refers to the 
source of supreme power : i.e., in a system of absolutism, supreme power is 
in the hands of one person. " Centralization " refers to the kind of adminis- 
tration. A centralized administration is one carried on by a body of officials 
of many grades, all appointed froyn above. Absolutism and centralization do 
not nece^arily go together. A government may come from the people, and 
yet rule through a centralized administration, as in France to-day. It may 
be absolute, and yet allow much freedom to local agencies, as in Turkey, oi 



§672] 



CHRISTIANITY VICTORIOUS 



547 



To this despotic organization we owe thanks, however, for 
putting off the catastrophe in western Europe for two centu- 
ries more. In this time, Christianity won its battle over pa- 
ganism, and Roman law took on a system (§ 737) that enabled 
ib to live on under the barbarian conquest. 

CONSTANTINE AND THE VICTORY OF CHRISTIANITY 

672. From Diocletian to Constantine, 305-312. — In 303, after 
long hesitation, Diocletian began the most terrible of all the 




Hall of the Baths of Diocletian — now the Church of St. Mary of the 

Angels. 

persecutions of the Christian church. Two years later, in the 
midst of this contest, he laid down his power, to retire to pri- 



in Russia in past centuries. But absolutism is likely to develop centralized 
agencies, as Russia has been doing rapidly of late. 

Under a great genius, like Napoleon the First, a centralized government 
may for a time produce rapid benefits. But the system always decays, and it 
does nothing to educate the people politically. Local self-government is often 
proyokingly slow and faulty, but it is surer in the long run. 



548 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§673 

vate life/ persuading his colleague Maximian to do the same. 
The two Caesars became emperors, — Galerius in the East and 
Constantius in the West. Each appointed a Caesar as an 
assistant and successor. But Constantius died in a few 
months, before the position of the new Caesars was firmly- 
established, and this misfortune plunged the empire into new 
strife. For eight years, civil war raged between six claimants 
for the throne. 

In such a struggle it was desirable not to be opposed by the 
growing power of the Christians. Galerius, who succeeded 
Diocletian in the East, had been bitterly hostile to them. 
Indeed he had been mainly responsible for the persecution by 
Diocletian. In his own provinces he had sought to continue 
that persecution through the intervening years; but in the 
feuds of civil war and of internal commotion, shortly before 
his death, he published in 311 a grudging Edict of Toleration. 
The document deplored the fact that the Christians would not 
" come back to reason, " but declared, that under the demoraliz- 
ing conditions, the emperor, " with accustomed clemency " 
judged it wise "to extend pardon even to these men," and to 
permit them to resume their own worship " provided they did 
nothing contrary to good order." 

The next year the cruel civil war came to a close with the 
victory of Constantine, under whom Christianity was to be 
more than merely tolerated. 

673. Constantine the Great was the son of that Constantius 
Chlorus who had been " Caesar " in Britain under Diocletian and 
who became joint emperor with Galerius, when the older em- 
perors abdicated. Constantius had distinctly favored the Chris- 
tians in his provinces. Almost immediately after his accession 
to the imperial throne, while still in Britain, he died ; and his 
devoted army at once clothed his son with the purple robes, 

1 When pressed to assume the government again during the disorders that 
followed, Diocletian wrote from his rural retreat: "Could you come here 
and see the vegetables that I raise in my garden with my own hands, you 
would no more talk to me of empire." Cf. § 631. 



§673] 



CHRISTIANITY VICTORIOUS 



549 



hailing him Imperator. For some years Constantine was con- 
tent to rule and reorganize his provinces in Britain and Gaul, 
preparing, at the proper moment, to interfere in the matter of 
civil strife in Italy, where one claimant was destroying another 
in swift succession. In 312, he marched upon the worthless 
-.'uler who then held Rome. The Western army forced the 
passes of the Alps, won some necessary battles in north Italy, 




The MHiVian Bridge To-day. 
Only the foundations belong to the ancient structure. 

and met the forces of the master of Rome for the decisive 
struggle at the Milvian Bridge, near the capital. 

Later writers told a famous story which critics much ques- 
tion but which is worth repeating. On the eve of battle, 
runs the tale, Constantine, after prayer for divine help, fell 
asleep. In his dream, Christ appeared to him, instructing 
him to inscribe the Cross upon his standards, — declaring " In 
this symbol you shall conquer " (" hoc signo vinces ").* At 
all events, Constantine did adopt this symbol, and his army 

1 Davis' Headings, II, No. 113, gives the whole of the original account. 



550 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§674 

was completely victorious. Constantine now established him- 
self as emperor in the West. The next year, Licinius, his 
ally in the civil war, became emperor in the East. 

Constantine ruled from 312 to 337. After ten years of joint 
rule, the emperors quarreled, and a new civil war made 
Constantine sole master. For fourteen years more he reigned 
as sole emperor. But though he abandoned the system of 
" partnership emperors " during his own life, yet in all other 
respects he preserved the reforms of Diocletian. Indeed, he 
perfected them, standing to Diocletian somewhat as the first 
Augustus stood to Julius Caesar. He was a far-sighted, broad- 
minded, unscrupulous statesman. He did not hesitate to 
assassinate a rival, and his memory is stained by the cruel 
execution of his wife and his son. But his work, with that 
of Diocletian, enabled the Empire to withstand unbroken the 
storms of another hundred and fifty years, and preserved a 
great part of it for ten centuries more. 

674. Constantinople. — Constantine definitely removed the capital 
of the empire from Rome. He established it at Byzantium, which he 
rebuilt with great magnificence, and which took from him its new name, 
— Constantinople, " Constantine's city." For this removal there were 
several wise reasons, political, military, economic, and perhaps religious. 
(1) The turbulent Roman populace still clung to the name of the old 
Republic, and an Eastern city would afford a more peaceful home for the 
Oriental monarchy now established. (2) Lying between the Danube 
and the Euphrates, Constantinople was a more convenient center than 
Rome from which to look to the protection of the frontiers, especially as 
the Persians were still thought the chief danger to the empire. (3) Con- 
stantinople was admirably situated to become a great center of commerce. 
Thus she could support a large population by her own industries far 
better than Rome, which had little means of producing wealth. (4) It 
is often said also that Constantine wished a capital which he could make 
Christian more easily than was possible with Rome, attached as the 
Roman people were to the old gods connected with the glories of the city. 

This last consideration introduces us to the most important part of 
Constantine's work (§ 675). 

675. Constantine and the Church. — Constantine put an end 
forever to the persecutions against Christians, and established 



5 676] CHRISTIANITY VICTORIOUS 551 

Christianity as the most favored religion of the empire. This 
was the leading event in the fourth century, overtopping even 
the political reorganization. 

The victory of Christianity just at this time enabled it to conquer also 
the barbarians, who were soon to conquer the empire. If they had not 
been converted before they became conquerors, it would have become 
almost impossible to convert them at all. This is what Freeman means 
{Chief Periods, 67) when he calls the conversion of the Roman Empire 
the "leading fact in all history from that time onward," because, 
" where Rome led, all must follow.'"' 

The immediate occasion of the victory of Christianity was 
the shrewd statesmanship of Constantine during the civil wars. 
The Christians still were less than one tenth the population 
of the empire, but they were the strongest force within it. 
They were energetic and enthusiastic; they were massed in 
the great cities, which held the keys to political power; and 
they were admirably organized for rapid, united action. 

It is not likely that Constantine gave much thought to 
the truth of Christian doctrine, and we know that he did 
not practise Christian virtues. But he was wise enough to 
recognize the good policy of allying this rising power to him- 
self against his rivals. He may have seen, also, in a broader 
and unselfish way, the folly of trying to restore the old pagan 
world, and have felt the need of establishing harmony between 
the government and this new power within the empire, so as 
to utilize its strength instead of always combating it. 

676. Steps in the Victory of Christianity. — In 313, a few 
months after Milvian Bridge, from his western capital, Milan, 
Constantine issued the famous decree known as the Edict of 
Milan : " We grant to the Christians and to all others free 
choice to follow the mode of worship they may wish, in order 
that whatsoever divinity and celestial power may exist may be 
propitious to us and to all who live under our government." 

This edict established only religious toleration, though in a 
less grudging way than by the Edict of Galerius. At a later 
time Constantine showed many favors to the church, granting 



552 



THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY 



[§676 



money for its buildings, and exempting the clergy from tax- 
ation.^ But it is not correct to say that he made Christianity 
the state religion. At the most, he seems to have given it an 
Bspecially favored place among the religions of the empire. 
Constantine himself, as Pontifex Maximus, continued to make 
the public sacrifices to the pagan gods ; but, partly as a result 




The Arch of Constantine. 

jf the favor he showed the church, both court and people passed 
over rapidly to the new religion. 

The struggle between Constantine and Licinius for sole 
power (§ 673) was also the final decisive conflict between 
Christianity and paganism. The followers of the old faiths 
rallied around Licinius, and before the final battle that general 
is said to have addressed his soldiers with these words (Euse- 
bius, Life of Constantine, II, 5) : — 



1 The privileges of teachers (§ 620) were the model for the privileges now 
extended to the clergy. 



§678] CONSTANTINE TO THEODOSIUS 553 

" These are our country's gods, and these we honor with a worship 
derived from our remote ancestors. But he who leads the army opposed 
to us has proven false to the religion of his fathers and has adopted athe- 
istic sentiments, honoring, in his infatuation, some strange and unheard-of 
deity, with whose despicable standard he now disgraces the army, and 
confiding in whose aid he has taken up arms . . . not so much against 
us as against the gods he has forsaken. Hoivever, the present occasion 
shall decide . . . between our gods and those our adversaries profess to 
honor. For either it will declare the victory to be ours, and so most justly 
evince that our gods are the true helpers and saviors ; or else if the god 
of Constantine, who comes we know not whence, shall prove superior to 
our deities ... let no one henceforth doubt what god he ought to worship." 

Whether or not Licinius used such words, many of his 
followers were influenced by these feelings. Accordingly, the 
victory of Constantine was accepted as a verdict in favor of 
Christianity, and before the end of the century Christianity 
became the state religion (§ 680).^ 

FROM CONSTANTINE TO THEODOSIUS (337-395) 

677. The Sons of Constantine (337-361) . — Constantine divided 
the empire at his death between his three sons, Constantine II, 
Constans, and Constantius. These princes, in true Oriental 
fashion, massacred many relatives whose ambition they feared, 
and then warred among themselves. After thirteen years, Con- 
stantius became sole emperor. He proved, however, an ineffi- 
cient ruler, and the realm was invaded repeatedly by Persians 
and Germans. 

678. Julian (361-363). —Finally the Alemanni (§ 648) broke 
into Gaul and seemed about to become masters of that prov- 
ince. This peril summoned Julian, a cousin of Constantius, 
from his studies at Athens. The youthful philosopher was 
given command of the imperial armies in Gaul. He defeated 
the invaders in a great battle at Strassburg, and drove them 
again beyond the Rhine. The enthusiastic army, against his 
will, saluted him emperor, and soon afterward, on the death of 
Constantius, he succeeded to the throne. 

1 On the privileges of the clergy, see Robinson's Readings, I, 23-26. 



554 THE EMPIRE— FOURTH CENTURY [§679 

Julian would have preferred to live the quiet life of a stu- 
dent, but he made a strong ruler. He spent his energy, how* 
ever, in conflict with two forces, both of which were to prove 
victorious, — the barbarians and the church. This reign saw 
the last official attempt to restore paganism. Julian had been 
brought up in the Christian faith (so that he is sometimes 
called " Julian the Apostate ") ; but his studies had inspired in 
him a love for the pagan Greek philosophy, and he was filled 
with disgust at the crimes and vices of his cousins' " Chris- 
tian" court. He established the worship of the old gods as 
the religion of the state, rebuilt the ruined temples, and re- 
stored the pagan emblems to the standards of the armies. He 
wrote also, with considerable ability, against Christian doc- 
trines. He did not try, however, to use violence against the 
church, and, except in the court, his efforts had little result. 
Indeed, he had little timiC to work in, for after two years 
(361-363) he fell in a victorious battle in a brilliant campaign 
against the Persians, and his suiccessor restored Christianity 
as the worship of the empire. According to a legend of later 
growth, when Julian felt the Persian arrow which gave him a 
mortal wound, he cried out (addressing Christ), "Thou hast 
conquered, Galilean ! " He lived two days in much pain, 
and spent the hours in talking with his friends about the 
immortality of the soul. 

679. The Last Attempt at ''Partnership Emperors." — On 
Julian's death, one of his officers, Jovian, was chosen emperor 
in the camp, and when he died, a few months later, the officers 
elected the vigorous Valentinian to succeed him. This ruler 
restored the system of " partnership emperors." He kept the 
West under his own control and assigned the East to his 
brother Valens. 

Valentinian (364-375) was harsh and cruel, but an able sol- 
dier. The Alemanni, who had again broken across the Rhine, 
were repulsed, and other German tribes were chastised. He 
was succeeded in the West by his son Gratian (375-383). In 
the East, Valens was proving himself weak as well as cruel 



II 



5 680] CONSTANTINE TO THEODOSIUS 555 

The Goths, a German people, were allowed (376 a.d.) to cross the 
Danube, to find homes as subjects within the empire (§ 712). En- 
raged by the deceit of imperial officials, these barbarians soon 
rose in rebellion, and defeated and slew Valens in the battle 
of Adrianople (378 a.d.). 

In the West, Gratian had in name associated his half-brother, 
Valentinian II, in the government ; but Valentinian was a mere 
child, and now, in the great danger of the empire, Gratian 
gave the throne of the invaded East to Theodosius, an ex- 
perienced general. 

680. Theodosius (379-395) pacified the Goths and restored 
order. On the death of Gratian, he succeeded to the real 
authority in the West also, although the young Valentinian 
was allowed to keep the name of emperor until his death in 
392. During the remaining three years of his life Theodosius 
was sole emperor, even in name. 

Tills was the last real union of the tvhole empire under one 
ruler. On the death of Theodosius, the empire was divided be- 
tween his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius. After 395 there 
was " The Empire in the East " and " The Empire in the West." 
The two were still one in theory, but in practice they grew 
apart and even became hostile powers. 

Theodosius prohibited pagan worship^ on pain of deaths and closed the 
ancient festival to Zeus at Olympia. This ardent support of Christianity 
makes more striking a remarkable penance to which, a bishop of the 
church subjected him. The Goths had been admitted into the army, 
especially in the East. Many quarrels took place between them and the 
inhabitants of the great cities, and at last a number of Gothic officers 
were massacred by the citizens of Thessalonica. In rage Theodosius 
gave orders for a terrible punishment. By his command the Gothic army 
in the guilty city surrounded the theater where the great body of inhabit- 
ants were assembled for the ^mes, and killed men, women, and chil- 
dren without mercy. At the time, Theodosius was at the Western capital, 
Milan. When next he attended church, the bishop Ambrose sternly for- 
bade him to enter, stained as he was with innocent blood. The emperor 
obeyed the priest. He withdrew humbly and accepted the penance which 
Ambrose imposed, and then, some months later, was received again to 
t.he services. (Davis' Headings, II, No. 116.) 



CHAPTER XLII 

THE EMPIRE OF THE FOURTH CENTURY 

(A Topical Study) 
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 

681. Church Government and the Empire. — As the church 

extended its sway, it adopted in its government the territorial 
divisions of the empire. Its chief officers, too, in a measure 
corresponded to the grades of the civil state. 

The early Christian missionaries to a province naturally 
went first to the chief city there. Thus the capital of the 
province became the seat of the first church in the district. 
From this mother society, churches spread to the other cities 
of the province, and from each city there sprouted outlying 
parishes. At the head of each parish was a priest, assisted by 
deacons and subdeacons.^ The head of a city church was a 
bishop (overseer), with supervision over the rural churches of 
the neighborhood. The bishop of the mother church in the 
capital city exercised great authority over the other bishops 
of the province. He became known as archbishop or metro- 
politan; and it became customary for him to summon the 
other bishops to a central council. 

Commonly, one of these metropolitans in a civil diocese 
(§ 666) came to have leadership over the others. This lot 
fell usually to the metropolitan of the chief city of the diocese. 
Thus, over much of the empire, the diocese became an ecclesi- 
astical unit, and its chief metropolitan was known as a par 
triarch. 



1 These officers had special care of the poor. There were also certain 
minor " orders — acolyte, exorcist, reader, doorkeeper. 

656 



I 



§684] THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 557 

682. One Catholic Church. — By degrees, the process toward 
a centralized government was carried further. The patriarchs 
of a few great centers were exalted above the others. Finally- 
all the East became divided between the four patriarchates of 
Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Constantinople, while all 
the West came under the authority of the bishop of Rome. 

The four Eastern cities were nearly enough equal in importance to be 
rivals ; but there was no city in the West that could rival Rome. This fact 
accounts in part for the authority of the bishop of Rome over so large an 
area. In the West the term diocese never had an ecclesiastical meaning 
corresponding to its civil use, but was applied to smaller units. 

This unity of organization, with its tendency toivard a single 
head, helped, to develop the idea of a single " Catholic " (all-embrac- 
ing) church, which should rule the whole world. After 300 a.d. 
this idea was never lost sight of} 

683. Theology and Greek Thought. — By degrees, the church 
came to contain the educated classes and men trained in the 
philosophical schools. These scholars brought with them into 
the church their philosophical thought ; and the simple teach- 
ings of Christ were expanded and modified by them into an 
elaborate system of theology. 

Thus, as Christanity borrowed the admirable organization of its govern 
ment from Rome, so it drew the refinement of its doctrine from Greece. 
Before this Semitic faith could become the faith of Europe, as Freeman 
says, " its dogmas had to be defined by the subtlety of the Greek intellect, 
and its political organization had to be wrought into form by the undying 
genius of Boman rule.''"' 

684. The Nicene Creed and the Arian Heresy. — When the 
leaders of the church tried to state just what they believed 
about difficult points, some violent disputes arose. In such 
cases the views of the majority finally prevailed as the orthodox 
doctrine, and the views of the minority became heresy. 

Most of the early heresies arose from different opinions about 
the exact nature of Christ. Thus Arius, a priest of Alexandria, 

1 See Robinson's Readings, I, 19-21, for a third century statement. For 
the Roman Catholic view to-day, see § 776. 



558 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§685 

taught that, while Christ was the divine Son of God, He was 
not equal to the Father. Athanasius, of the same city, asserted 
that Christ was not only divine and the Son of God, but that 
He and the Father were absolutely equal in all respects, — " of 
the same substance " and " co-eternal." The struggle waxed 
fierce and divided Christendom into opposing camps. But the 
Emperor Constantine desired union in the church. If it split 
into hostile fragments, his political reasons for favoring it 
would be gone. Accordingly, in 325, he summoned all the prin- 
cipal clergy of the empire to the first great council of the 
whole church, at Nicaea, in Asia Minor, and ordered them to come 
to agreement. 

Arius and Athanasius in person led the fierce debate. In the 
end the majority sided with Athanasius. His doctrine, summed 
up in the Nicene Creed, became the orthodox creed of Christen- 
dom. Arianism was condemned, and Arius and his followers 
were excluded from the church and persecuted. This heresy 
was to play an important part, however, in later history. Its 
exiled disciples converted some of the barbarian peoples, who 
later brought back the Arian faith with them into the empire 
when they conquered it (§§ 708, 733, 742). ^ 

685. Persecution by the Church. — Diocletian's persecution 
was the last which the church had to suffer. Now, it began 
itself to use violence to stamp out other religions. The Em- 
peror Gratian (§ 679) permitted orthodox Christians to prevent 
the worship of heretical Christian sects ; and the great Theo- 
dosius forbade all pagan worship (§ 680). ^ Paganism survived 
for a century more, in out-of-the-way places,^ but Christianity 

1 Special reports : other early heresies, especially that of the Gnostics and 
that of the Manichaeans, and the church councils that dealt with them. The 
sect of Manichaeans arose in the East and was influenced by the Persian re- 
ligion (§ 78). According to this heresy, God was not all-powerful, but the devil 
existed and worked as an independent power, like the evil power in Zoroas- 
trianism. 

2 See various decrees in Robinson's Readings, I, 23, 26-27. 

8 Hence the name pagans, from a Latin word meaning rustics. From a 
like fact the Christian Germans at a later time came to describe the remain- 
ing adherents of the old worship as heathens (heath-dwellers) . 



§686] THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 559 

had now become the sole legal religion. Heathen temples and 
idols were destroyed ; many of the philosophical schools were 
broken up ; ^ and adherents of the old faiths were sometimes 
put to death. All this deplorable policy was opposed in vain 
by some of the greatest of the Fathers, as by Augustine and 
John Chrysostom (that is, John "of the Golden Mouth''; 
§702). 

In centuries to come this persecution by the church dwarfed into insig- 
nificance even the terrible persecutions it had suffered. The motive dif- 
fered widely from that of the old imperial persecution. It w^as not 
political. Each persecuting sect of the Christian church has justified 
its action on the ground that belief in its particular faith was neces- 
sary to salvation. Therefore it seemed right and merciful to torture the 
bodies of heretics in order to save their souls and to protect the souls 
of others. 

686. Effect of the Conversion of the Empire. — The victorious 
church mitigated slavery ; it made suicide ^ a crime ; it built 
up a vast and beneficent system of charity ;^ and it abolished 
the gladiatorial games. The deeper purifying results, in the 
hearts of individual men and women, history cannot trace 
directly. 

But no event of this kind can work in one direction only. 
The pagan world was converted at first more in form than in 
spirit, and paganism reacted upon Christianity. The victory 
was in part a compromise. The pagan empire became Chris- 
tian; but the Christian church became, to some degree, im- 
perial and pagan. When it conquered the barbarians, soon 
afterward, it became to some degree barbarian. The gain 
enormously exceeded the loss ; but there did take place an in- 
evitable change from the earlier Christianity. 

1 There is a five-page summary of early persecutions by the Christians in 
Lecky, European Morals, 194-198. 

2 Most of the great pagans looked upon suicide as perfectly excusable 
(though Socrates had condemned it), and it had been growing frightfully 
common. 

* Lecky, European Mor^^ls, II, 79-98, gives an excellent account. 



560 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§687 

SOCIETY IN THE FOURTH CENTURY 

687. Exhaustion. — The three quarters of a century after 
the reunion of the empire under Constantine was marked by 
a fair degree of outward prosperity. But the secret forces 
that were sapping the strength of society continued to work, 
and early in the coming century (the fifth) the Empire was 
to crumble under barbarian attacks. These inroads were no 
more formidable than those which had so often been rebuffed. 
Apparently they were weaker (§ 752). The barbarians, then, 
are not to be considered as the chief cause of the " Fall." The 
causes were internal. The Roman Empire was overthrown 
from without by an ordinary attack, because it had grown 
weak within. 

This weakness was not due, in any marked degree at least, 
to decline in the army. The army kept its superb organiza- 
tion, and to the last was so strong in its discipline and its 
pride that it was ready to face any odds unflinchingly. But 
more and more it became impossible to find men to fill the 
legions, or money to pay them. Dearth of men (§ 649) and of 
money was the cause of the fall of the state. The Empire had 
become a shell} 

688. Lack of money, rather than too much wealth, was one 
of the great evils. The empire did not have sufficient sources 
of supply of precious metals for the demands of business ; and 
what money there was was steadily drained away to India and 
the distant Orient (§ 613). This movement, which had been 
noticeable in the first century, had carried away hundreds of 
millions of dollars of coined money by the fourth century. 
The emperors were forced to mix silver and gold with 
cheaper metals in their coins. This reduced the purchasing 
power of money and demoralized business. Finally the lack 



1 The older writers explained the decay on moral grounds. Recent scholars 
are at one in recognizing, first, that the moral decay of Roman society has 
been greatly exaggerated, and, secondly, that the immediate causes of decline 
were political and economic. 



§691] SOCIETY CRYSTALLIZING 561 

of coin forced even imperial officers to draw part of their 
salaries in produce, — robes, horses, wheat. Trade, in many- 
districts, reverted to primitive barter. To pay taxes became 
more and more difficult. These evils continued to afflict 
Europe until the discovery of Mexico and Peru. 

689. The classes of society in the fourth and fifth centuries 
differed widely from those of the first three centuries. At the 
top was the emperor to direct the machinery of government. 
At the bottom were the peasantry and artisans to produce 
food and wealth wherewith to pay taxes. Between these 
extremes were two aristocracies, — an imperial aristocracy for 
the empire at large, and a local aristocracy for every city. 

690. The senatorial nobility, the higher aristocracy, now in- 
cluded many nobles who never sat in the Senate either at 
Rome or at the new capital Constantinople. It had swallowed 
up the old senatorial class of Rome, and most of the knights. 
It was "a nobility of office." That is, as with the modern 
Russian nobility, a family lost its rank unless from time to 
time it furnished officials to the government. 

A noble of this class possessed great honor and some impor- 
tant privileges. He was a citizen of the whole empire, not of 
one municipality alone, and he did not have to pay local taxes. 
He bore, however, heavy imperial burdens. He might be 
called upon at any moment for ruinous expenses at the capital, 
in fulfilling some imperial command, or he might be required 
to assume some costly office at his own expense on a distant 
frontier. But only a few individuals were actually ruined by 
such duties. The lot of the great majority was a favored one. 
The great landed proprietors belonged to this class. The law 
allowed them to escape their proper share of the burdens of 
society ; and from those burdens which they were supposed to 
bear, they escaped in large measure by bribing the imperial 
officers. 

691. The Curials. — Below the imperial nobility was the 
local nobility. Each city had its senate, or curia. The curials 
were not drafted into the armies, as the lower classes might be, 



562 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§692 

nor were they subject to bodily punishment. They managed 
the finances of their city, and to some degree they still con- 
trolled its other local affairs. Those curials who rose to the 
high magistracies, however, had to bear large expense in pro- 
viding shows and festivals for their fellow-townsmen, and all 
curials had costly duties in supplying the poor with corn. 

More crushing still to this local nobility were the imperial 
burdens. The chief imperial tax was the land tax. The needs 
of the empire caused the amount to be increased steadily, 
while the ability of the people to pay steadily decreased. The 
curials were made the collectors of this tax in their city, and 
were held personally responsible for any deficit. 

This duty was so undesirable that the number of curials 
tended to fall away. To secure the revenue, the emperors 
tried to prevent this decrease. The curials were made a heredi- 
tary class, and were bound to their office. They were forbidden 
to become clergy, soldiers, or lawyers ; they were not allowed 
to move from city to city, or even to travel without special 
permission. 

A place in the senate of his city had once been the highest ambition 
of a wealthy middle-class citizen ; but in the fourth century it had be- 
come almost an act of heroism to assume the duty. A story is told that 
in a Spanish municipality a public-spirited man voluntarily offered him- 
self for a vacancy in the curia, and that his fellow-citizens erected a statue 
in his honor. As the position grew more and more unendurable, desper- 
ate attempts were made to escape at any sacrifice. Of course the desir- 
able escape was into the imperial nobility, but this was possible only to 
a few. Others, despite the law, sought refuge in the artisan gilds, in the 
church, or even in serfdom, in a servile marriage, or in flight to the 
barbarians.! 

692. The middle class between the curials and the laborers, 
was rapidly disappearing. When a trader, small landowner, or 
professional man acquired a certain amount of land, he was 
compelled by law to become a curial; but the general drift 
was for such men to sink rather than rise. 

1 See Robinson's Readings, I, 29. 



§694] SOCIETY CRYSTALLIZING 563 

693. The artisans were grouped in gilds, or colleges, each 
with its own organization. Each member was now hound to his 
gild, as the curial to his office. The condition of artisans had 
become desperate. An edict of Diocletian's regarding prices 
and wages shows that a workman received not more than one 
tenth the wages of an American workman of like grade, while 
food and clothing cost at least one third as much as now. The 
artisan of the fourth century then received in " real wages " 
only a third as much as the artisan of to-day. To say nothing 
of other matters, it is hard to see how he could have kept soul 
and body together. His family must have known very rarely 
the taste of butter, eggs, or fresh meat. 

694. The peasantry had become serfs. That is, they were 
bound to their labor on the soil, and changed masters with 
the land they tilled. 

In the last days of the Republic, the system of great es- 
tates which had blighted Italy earlier (§§ 480, 488) cursed 
province after province outside Italy. Free labor disappeared 
before servile labor; grain culture declined; and large areas 
of land ceased to be tilled. To help remedy this state of 
affairs, the emperors introduced a new system. After success- 
ful wars, they gave large numbers of barbarian captives to 
great landlords, — thousands in a batch, — not as slaves, but 
as coloni, or serfs. The purpose was to secure a hereditary 
class of agricultural laborers, and so keep up the food supply. 
The coloni were really given not to the landlord, but to the land. 

They were not personal property, as slaves were. TJiey 
were part of the real estate. They, and their children after 
them, were attached to the soil, and could not be sold off it. 
They had some rights which slaves did not have. They could 
contract a legal marriage, and each had his own plot of ground, 
of which he could not be dispossessed so long as he paid to 
the landlord a fixed rent in labor and in produce. 

Augustus began this system on a small scale, and it soon became a 
regular practice to dispose thus of vanquished tribes. This made it still 
more difficult for the free small-farmer to maintain himself. That class 



564 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§695 

sank into serfs. On the other hand, the slaves rose into serfs, until 
nearly all cultivators of the soil were of this order. 

This institution of coloni lasted for hundreds of years, under the name 
of serfdom. It helped change the ancient slave organization of labor 
into the modem free organization. For the slave it was an immense 
gain. At the moment, however, it was one more factor in killing out the 
old middle class and in widening the gap between the nobles and the 
small cultivators.! 

But in the fourth century, the lot of the coloni, too, had become miser- 
able. They were crushed by imperial taxes, in addition to the rent due 
their landlord ; and in Diocletian's time, in Gaul, they rose in desperate 
revolt against the upper classes, to plunder, murder, and torture — a 
terrible forerunner of the peasant-risings during the Middle Ages. 

695. Society was crystallizing into castes. Not only had the peasantry 
become serfs, attached from generation to generation to the same plot of 
ground: the principle of serfdom was being applied to all classes. The 
artisan was bound to his hereditary gild, and the curial and the noble 
each to his hereditary order. Freedom of movement seemed lost. In 
its industries and its social relations as well as in government, the 
Empire was becoming despotic and Oriental. 

696. Crushing Taxation. — The Empire was "a great tax 
gathering and barbarian-fighting machine." It collected taxes 
in order to fight barbarians. But the time came when the pro- 
vincials began to dread the tax-collector more than they feared the 
Goth. This was partly because of the decrease in ability to 
pay, and partly because the complex organization cost more and 
more. Says Goldwin Smith: " The earth swarmed with the 
consuming hierarchy of extortion, so that it was said that they 
who received taxes were more than they who paid them." 
Moreover, the wealthiest classes succeeded in shifting the bur- 
den largely upon those least able to pay. 

Thus, heavy as the taxation was, it yielded less and less. The 
revenues of the government shrank up. The empire suffered 
from a lack of wealth as well as from a lack of men. 

1 This serf system began on the vast estates of the emperors themselves, — 
where easy rental and protection made the arrangement desirable even to 
many free tenant farmers. Later, the system spread to h\g private estates; 
and it was reinforced by this practice of barbarian captives. 



§698] THE MONEY POWER 565 

697. Peaceful Infusion of Barbarians. — The only measure that 
helped fill up the gaps in population was the introduction of 
barbarians from \7ith0ut. This took place peace/t^% on a large 
scale; but so far as preserving the political empire was con- 
cerned, it was a source of weakness rather than of strength. 

Not only was the Roman army mostly made up of Germans : 
whole provinces were settled by them, before their kinsmen 
from without, in the fifth century, began in earnest to break over 
the Rhine. Conquered barbarians had been settled, hundreds 
of thousands at a time, in frontier provinces, and friendly tribes 
had been admitted, to make their homes in depopulated 
districts. Thus as slaves, soldiers, coloni, subjects, the German 
world had been filtering into the Roman world, until a large part 
of the empire was peacefully Germanized. Even the imperial 
officers were largely Germans. 

This infusion of new blood helped to renew the decaying 
population and to check the decline of material prosperitj'. 
The Germans within the empire, in large measure, took on 
Roman civilization and customs ; but at the same time, they 
kept some of their old customs and ideas and a friendly 
feeling for their kinsmen in the German forests. Tlie harrier 
betiveen the empire and its assailants melted aivay. This 
lessened the agony of the barbarian conquest, but it helped to 
make it possible. 

698. The Government and the Money Power. — Men were not 
equal before the law. Not only the courts in practice, but 
even the written law, made vicious distinctions between rich 
and poor. The noble, convicted of crime, was punished more 
lightly than a poor man for the same offense. 

Worse still were the special privileges which the govern- 
ment permitted to the rich for heaping up more wealth. We 
noted in the closing history of the Republic the pernicious 
alliance between the " money power " and the government. 
Just how far such a state of things continued under the 
Empire it is hard to say. But so shrewd a reformer as 
Diocletian believed positively that a chief factor in the ruin* 



566 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§699 

ous cost of living to the poor was the combination of capital- 
ists to raise prices. He speaks of " the raging avarice," " the 
exorbitant prices," ''the unbridled desire to. plunder," on the 
part of those vs^ho control the market ; and so he issued a de- 
cree (referred to in § 693) in which he fixed the highest 
price which it should be lawful to ask or give for each one of 
some eight hundred articles of daily use, — wheat, leather, 
various sorts of cloth, butter, eggs, pork, beef. Such an effort 
was foredoomed to failure. But it is interesting as one of the 
few cases in which the government attempted to interfere on 
the side of the poor. 

699. No serious attempt was made, after the early days of 
the Empire, to build up a new free peasantry by giving farms 
to the unemployed millions of the cities. This is strange; 
for such efforts to turn a dangerous weakness into a source of 
strength had been characteristic of the reformers who preceded 
the Empire, from Gracchus to Caesar (§§ 508-519, 558). The 
cause of the absence of such effort is probably the influence 
of wealth upon the ruling powers. The noble landlords who 
shared among themselves the wide domains of Africa, Gaul, 
and Spain, received gladly the free gift of thousands of coloni 
(§ 694) to till their lands ; but they would have fought fiercely 
any attempt by the government to recover part of their domains 
to make homes for free settlers. 

There is, however, another side to the question. In the 
days of Gracchus and of Caesar, the city mob was made up, in 
good part, of ex-farmers, or of their sons, who had been driven 
from the land against their will (§ 489). Long before Diocle- 
tian's day, the rabble of Rome or Alexandria had lost all touch 
with country life. Secure in free doles of grain, sleeping in 
gateways, perhaps, but spending their days in the splendid free 
public baths or in the terrible fascination of gladiatorial games 
or of the chariot races, they could no longer be driven to the 
simple life and hard labor of the farm — even if farming had 
continued profitable. We know that to-day, in America, hun- 
dreds of thousands of stalwart men prefer want and misery on 



§702] INTELLECTUAL DECLINE 567 

the crowded sidewalks and under the gleaming lights of a city 
to the loneliness of a comfortable living in the country. So 
in the ancient world, it was probably too late, when the Em- 
pire came, to wean the mob from its city life. 

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE 

700. Theological Character. — The great names in literature 
in the fourth century were almost all the names of churchmen, 
and the writings were nearly all theological. In other lines, 
even more than in the third century, the period was one of 
intellectual decay. There were no more poets, and no new dis- 
coveries in science. Even the old science and literature were 
neglected. 

701. The chief pagan writers were : — 

Ammianus, an Asiatic Greek soldier, the author of a spirited continuation 
of Tacitus' history ; 

Eutropius, a soldier and the author of a summary of Roman history ; 

Julian (the emperor), whose chief works were his Memoirs and a " Refu- 
tation" of Christianity. 

702. Many Christian writers produced a flood of theological and argu- 
mentative works. Among them were : — 

Ambrose (Saint), a Gallic lawyer, and afterward bishop of Milan (the 

bishop who disciplined the Emperor Theodosius) ; the author of many 

letters, sermons, and hymns ; 
Anthony (Saint), an Egyptian hermit; 
Arius and Athanasius (§ 684) ; 
Augustine (Saint), bishop of Hippo in Africa, author of many letters, 

commentaries, sermons, theological works ; probably the most widely 

known are his Confessions and The City of God; 
Basil (Saint) ; 

John Chrysostom (Saint), a famous orator (§ 685) ; 
Eusebius, a bishop and the author of the first ecclesiastical history ; 
Jerome (Saint), a Syrian hermit, who translated the Bible into Latin (the 

Vulgate) and wrote controversial works ; 
Martin (Saint), soldier, monk, and bishop of Tours, who established the 

first monastery in Gaul (famous for its beautiful manuscripts) ; 
Ulfilas, a Gothic hostage, who became bishop and missionary among his 

people, converting them to Arianism ; he arranged a Gothic alphabet 



568 THE EMPIRE — FOURTH CENTURY [§703 

and translated the Bible into Gothic (the oldest literary work in a 
Teutonic language ; a copy in silver letters upon scarlet parchment is 
preserved in the library of Upsala University). 

703. Attitude of Christians toward Pagan Learning. — Many 

Christians were hostile to pagan science and literature, while 
for a long time the Christian world produced little to take their 
place. The pagan poetry, beautiful as it was, was filled with 
immoral stories of the old gods. This explains in part why 
the Christians feared contamination from pagan literature. 
Their attitude was like that of the Puritans of the seventeenth 
century toward the plays of Shakespeare. The contempt for 
pagan science had less excuse, and its result was particularly 
unfortunate. 

For instance, the spherical form of the earth vi^as veell known to the 
Greeks (§ 320) ; but the early Christians demolished the idea by theologi- 
cal arguments. " It is impossible," said St. Augustine, " there should he 
inhaUtants on the other side of the earth, since no such race is recorded 
in Scripture among the descendants of Adam." And, said others, " if the 
earth were round, how could all men see Christ at his coming ? " 

Even St. Jerome, an ardent scholar during most of his life, 
came at one time under the influence of this hostile feeling so 
far as to rejoice at the growing neglect of Plato and to warn 
Christians against pagan writers. In 398, a council of the 
church officially cautioned bishops against reading any books 
except religious ones ; and the prevalent feeling was forcefully 
expressed a little earlier (350 a.d.) in a writing known as the 
" Apostolical Constitutions " : — 

" Refrain from all the writings of the heathens ; . . . For if thou 
wilt explore history, thou hast the Books of the Kings ; or seekest thou 
for words of wisdom and eloquence, thou hast the Prophets, Job, and the 
Book of Proverbs ... Or dost thou long for tuneful strains, thou hast 
the Psalms ; or to explore the origin of things, thou hast the Book of 
Genesis. . . . Wherefore abstain scrupulously from all strange and 
devilish books." 

The Christians did not usually attend the public schools 
until the time of Constantine, and soon after that time they 



§704] INTELLECTUAL DECLINE 569 

began to break up the old philosophical schools. The church 
was soon to become the mother and the sole protector of a 
new learning ; but it has to bear part of the blame for the 
loss of the old.^ 

704. Deeper Causes of the Decay of Learning. — But this 
attitude of the Christians was not the main cause for the 
decay of learning. A deeper and more far-reaching cause lay 
in the general decline of the Roman world which we have 
discussed (§§ 647-651). That world, for the time at least, 
was exhausted. It had been growing weaker year by year, in 
government, in industry, in population, as well as in literature 
and science. Now it was to be torn down and rebuilt by a 
more vigorous people. But in the first part of that process — 
the destructive part — the survivals of the old learning were 
mostly to be extinguished (§ 751). 



FoK Further Reading on chapters xli and xlii. — Specially suggested : 
Davis' Eeadings, II, Nos. 109-119 (most of which extracts have been 
referred to in the text). Additional : Pelham's Outlines, 577-586; Rob- 
inson's Eeadings, I, 20-29; Adams' Civilization during the Middle Ages, 
48-64; Kipling's stories — Puck of Pook's Hill (also in McClure's, May- 
July, 1906). 

REVIEW EXERCISE FOR PART V 

1. Add the dates 284, 325, 378, to the list. 

2. Extend list of terms and names for fact drill. 

3. Memorize characterization of the centuries of the Empire; i.e. — 

First and second centuries : good government, peace and prosperity. 
Third century : decline, — material, political, and intellectual. 
Fourth century : revival of imperial power ; victory of Chris- 
tianity ; social and intellectual decline. 
Fifth and sixth centuries (in advance) : barbarian conquest. 

4. Review the growth of the Christian church. 

6. Review briefly the movement in literature and science. 

1 Drane's Christian Schools and Scholars, l-Al, gives an interesting treat- 
ment of early Christian culture somewhat different from that presented here 



PAET VI 

EOMANO-TEUTONIO EUROPE 

The settlement of the Teutonic tribes was not merely the introduction 
of a new set of ideas and institutions, . . . it was also the introduction of 
fresh blood and youthful mind — the muscle and brain which in the future 
were to do the larger share of the worWs work. — George Burton 
Adams. 

Before entering upon this final portion of Ancient History, 
it will be well to reread carefully the summaries in §§ 4 and 322. 



CHAPTER XLIII 
THE TEUTONS 

705. Early Home and the Different Peoples. — The Teutons 
came into our story first at the time of Marius (§ 523). At fre- 
quent intervals during the five centuries since that first invasion 
they had been beating fiercely upon the frontiers, and they had 
sent great swarms of their numbers, as prisoners and as peaceful 
colonists, to dwell within the empire. Now they were to break 
in as conquerors, so introducing one of the great eras in history. 

The Rhine and the Danube had long separated the barbaric 
world from the Roman world. Between the Danube and the 
Baltic, north and south, and between the Rhine and the Vistula, 
east and west, roamed many tribes known to themselves by no one 
name, but all called Germans (Teutons) by the Romans. In the 
fifth century the important groups were the Goths, Burgundians, 
Vandals, Alemanni, Lombards, Franks, and Saxons. The 
Norsemen were to appear later. 

706. Stage of Culture. — The distant tribes were savage and 
unorganized. Those near the empire had taken on some civ* 

570 



§7071 CULTURE AND MORALS 571 

ilization and had moved toward a stronger political union, under 
the rule of kings. In general they seem to have been little 
above the level of the better North American Indians. They 
had no cities, but their important villages were surrounded by 
palisades, like the Iroquois villages. They lived chiefly by 
hunting and fishing ; and what little agriculture they had was 
managed by women or slaves. They had no true alphabet 
(except the G othic, invented by Ulfilas, § 702) and no literature, 
except simple ballads. Their trade was barter. Skins or rude 
cloths formed their clothing ; but the nobler warriors possessed 
chain mail and wore helmets crested with plumes, horns, dragons, 
and other strange devices. 

707. Character. — Tacitus (§ 628) says of the Germans: — 

" They have stern blue eyes, ruddy hair, bodies large and robust, but 
powerful only in sudden efforts. They are impatient of toil and labor. 
Thirst and heat overcome them, but from the nature of their soil and 
climate they are proof against cold and hunger." — Germania, iv. 

The usual marks of savagery were found among them. They 
were fierce, quarrelsome, hospitable. Their cold, damp forests 
had helped to make them excessive drunkards and immoderate 
eaters, and when not engaged in war they spent day after day 
in sleep or gluttony. They were desperate gamblers, too, and, 
when other wealth was gone, they would stake even their liberty 
upon the throw of the dice. 

At the same time, they do seem to have possessed some pe- 
culiar traits not common in savage races. They revered women. 
Tacitus dwells upon the affection and purity of their family 
life. They reverenced truth and fidelity. Their grim joy in 
battle rose sometimes to fierce delight or even to a " Baersark " 
rage that made men insensible to wounds. In particular, they 
possessed a proud spirit of individual liberty (in contrast 
mth. the Roman devotion to the State), a "high, stern sense 
;)f manhood and the worth of man," which was to influence 
|)rofoundly later European history. 

Another quality is especially important. The Germans 
lesemble the Hebrews in a serious, earnest, imaginative tern* 



572 



THE TEUTONS 



[§707 




6 708] CULTURE AND MORALS 573 

perament, which has made their Christianity differ widely from 
that of the clear-minded, sunnier peoples of southern Europe. 
They felt the solemn mystery of life, with its shortness of 
days, its sorrows, and unsatisfied longings. This inspired in 
them, not unmanly despair nor light recklessness, but a 
heroism tinged with melancholy. In the Song of Beoimlf (an 
old poem that has come down to us from the German forests) 
the chieftain goes out to an almost hopeless encounter with a 
terrible monster that had been destroying his people. " Each 
man," exclaims the hero, " must abide the end of his life work ; 
let him that may work, work his doomed deeds ere night come." 
And, again, as he sits by the dragon mound, victorious, but 
dying : — 

" These fifty winters have I ruled this folk ; no folk-king of folk-kings 
about me — not any one of them — dare in the war-strife welcome my 
onset ! Time's change and chances I have abided ; held my own fairly ; 
sought not to snare men ; oath never sware I falsely against right. So, 
for all this, may I glad be at heart now, sick though I sit here, wounded 
with death-wounds ! " 

The same trait of mingled gloom and heroism is seen in a 
striking feature of their religion (at least as it finally developed 
in Iceland). This was the belief in the "Twilight of the 
Gods." Heroes who had fought a good fight on earth were to 
reap their reward hereafter in fighting beside the gods of Light 
and Warmth, against the evil giants of Cold and Darkness ; but 
in the end the gods and heroes were all to perish before the 
powers of evil. With these Teutons, says John Richard Green 
{History of the English People)^ -* life was built, not on the hope 
of a hereafter, but on the proud self-consciousness of noble 
souls." 

708. Religion. — The old German religion was a rude poly- 
theism. Woden, the war god, held the first place in their wor- 
ship. From him the noble families all claimed descent. Tlior, 
whose hurling hammer caused the thunder, was the god 
of storms and of the air. Freya was the deity of joy and 
fruitfulness. 



574 THE TEUTONS [§709 

These Teutonic gods live still in our names for the days of the week. 
Woden's day, Thor's day, and Freya's day are easily recognized in 
their modern dress. Tuesday and Saturday take their names from two 
obscure gods, Tiw and Saetere ; while the remaining two days are the 
Moon's day and the Sun's day. 

The Franks and Saxons when they broke into the empire 
(§§ 720, 740) were still heathen. All the other tribes that set- 
tled in the empire in the fifth century had just become converts 
to Arian Christianity, through the labors of Arian exiles. 

709. Government. — Tacitus shows the Germans, organized 
in three political units, — village, canton, and tribe. The 
village was originally no doubt the home of a clan. The vil- 
lage and the tribe each had its popular Assembly with its 
hereditary chief. The tribal chief, or king, was surrounded 
by his council of smaller chiefs. To quote Tacitus : — 

" In the election of kings they have regard to birth ; in that of generals 
to valor. Their kings have not an absolute or unlimited power ; and theii 
generals command less through the force of authority than of example. 
If they are daring, adventurous, and conspicuous in action, they procure 
obedience from the admiration they inspire." — Germaiiia, vii. 

" On affairs of smaller moment, the chiefs consult ; on those of greater 
importance, the whole community ; yet with this circumstance, that 
what is referred to the decision of the people is first discussed by the 
chiefs. They assemble, unless upon some sudden emergency, on stated 
days, either at the new or full moon. When they all think fit, they sit 
down armed. Silence is proclaimed by the priests, who have on this 
occasion a coercive power. Then the king, or chief, and such others as 
are conspicuous for age, birth, military renown, or eloquence, are heard ; 
and gain attention rather from their ability to persuade, than their author- 
ity to command. If a proposal displease, the assembly reject it by an 
inarticulate murmur ; if it prove agreeable, they clash their javelins ; 
for the most honorable expression of assent among them is the sound of 
^rms." > /6., xi, xii. 

710. The " Companions." — One peculiar institution must be 
noted. Every great chief was surrounded by a band of " com- 
panions," who lived in his household, ate at his table, and 
fought at his side. To them the chief gave food, weapons, and 

^ Compare with the early Greek organization, §§ 102-107. 



§711] GOVERNMENT 575 

plunder : for the honor and safety of their " lord " they de- 
moted their energies and lives. The element oi personal loyalty 
in this relation of " companion '^ and lord was to influence the 
development of later European feudalism. In Germany itseK 
the class of companions seems to have been made up largely 
of outlaws or adventurers skilled in arms. It grew in impor 
tance, however, after the invasions, and finally developed into 
the nobility of later Europe (§ 761 6). 

711. The Charm of the South. — The sunny South, with the 
wonders and riches of its strange civilization, fascinated these 
savages with a potent spell. For five hundred years they had 
been striving to enter in and possess it. The pressure of 
fiercer barbarians behind them afnd of their own increasing 
population had produced certain periods of special effort, and 
sometimes they had burst in for brief periods of plunder. 
Always hitherto they had been driven out again by some 
Marius, Caesar, Aurelius, Aurelian, Diocletian, or Julian. 
About the year 400, in the exhaustion of the empire, they be- 
gan at last to come in to stay. 



For Further Eeading. — Tacitus, in his Germania, treats the Teu- 
tons at length, though less as a skilled observer than as a moralist — to 
contrast their barbaric simplicity and virtue with the vices of Roman 
civilization. Davis' Headings, II, No. 121, gives a four-page extract, 
which should be read carefully. The three most readable modern treat- 
ments are the opening pages of Green's English People, Taine's English 
Literature (bk. i, ch. i, sections 1-3), and Kingsley's Boman and Teuton, 
1-16 ("The Forest Children"). The last is idealized. There are 
briefer valuable accounts in Hodgkin's Theodosius (close of chapter ii), 
and in Henderson's Short History of Germany, I, 1-11. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

THE WANDERING OF THE PEOPLES, 376-565 A.D. 

How can a man draw a picture of that which has no shape ; or tell the 
order of absolute disorder? It is all . . . like the working of an ant- 
heap ; like the insects devouring each other in a drop of water. Teuton 
tribes^ Slavonic tribes^ Tartar tribes, Roman generals, empresses, bishops, 
courtiers, adventurers, appear for a moment out of the crowd, — dim 
phantoms . . . and then vanish. ... — Charles Kingsley. 

THE TEUTONS BREAK OVER THE BARRIERS 
A. The Danube (376-378 a.d.) 

712. The West Goths: Adrianople. — The event which we 
now recognize as the first step in the victory of the Teutons 
seemed at the time only a continuation of an old policy of the 
Empire. Many tribes had been admitted within the bound- 
aries as allies and had proven faithful defenders of the 
frontiers. In 376, such a measure was repeated on a vast scale. 

The story has been told briefly in § 679. The whole 
people of the West Goths ( Visigoths) appeared on the Danube, 
fleeing from the more terrible Huns — wild, nomadic horse- 
men from Tartary. Valens, emperor of the East, granted the 
prayers of the fugitives, allowed them to cross the Danube, 
and gave them lands south of the river. They were to give up 
their arms, while Eoman agents were to supply them food until 
the harvest. These agents embezzled the imperial funds and 
furnished vile and insufficient food, while at the same time, 
for bribes, they allowed the barbarians to keep their arms.^ 

The Goths rose and marched on Constantinople. At 
Adrianople (378 a.d.) Valens was defeated and slain. This 

^In much the same way, American " Indian Agents " have provoked more 
than one Indian war in our history. 

576 




^ A N 





explanation: 




Eirst-Iaroad of Huns 




. SecondJnr.oad of HunS 




Vandals 




Visigoths 


l-i 


Ostrogoths, 1io 489 




Franks 


^ 


Jutes, Saxons, and Angles 


N 





Alexandria 



©Eeen.wich 30 



§714] THE WANDERING OF THE PEOPLES 577 

battle marks the beginning of the Teutonic conquest. The Goths 
ravaged the land up to the walls of the capital, but they 
could not storm a great city. The new emperor, sTheodosius 
the Great, finally pacified them, and they remained in the 
Danubian provinces, peaceful settlers, for nearly twenty years. 

713. Alaric. — In 395, Theodosius died, and at once masses 
of the Goths rose under an ambitious young chieftain, Alaric, 
whom they soon made their king. Alaric led his host into 
Greece. For a heavy ransom, he spared Athens, but he 
sacked Corinth, Argos, and Sparta. He was trapped in the 
Peloponnesus by the gigantic Vandal, Stilicho, a general of 
Honorius, emperor of the West (§ 680) ; but finally the Goth 
bought or maneuvered his way out, with his plunder. 

Arcadius, the terrified emperor of the East, then gave him 
a commission as "imperial lieutenant" in Illyria. "There 
he staid, somewhere about the head of the Adriatic, poised 
like an eagle in mid-air, watching Rome on one side and 
Byzant on the other, uncertain for a while on which quarry 
he should swoop." In 402, he made up his mind for Rome. 
But Stilicho, " the Roman shield," beat him off in two battles ; 
and he drew back for a few years more into Illyria. 

714. The Sack of Rome, 410 a.d. — Meanwhile Stilicho 
turned upon and destroyed a more savage horde of two hun- 
dred thousand wild Germans, who had poured down through 
the Alps under Radogast and were besieging Florence. Soon 
afterward Honorius suspected Stilicho of plotting to seize 
the throne, and had him murdered. The deed was signal 
enough for Alaric to try Italy once more. The weak Honorius 
hid himself in his impregnable fortress of Ravenna, defended 
by its marshes, and left the Goths free to work their will. 
Alaric captured Rome ; and then for five days and nights 
that proud city was given up to sack (410 a.d.) — just 800 
years after its capture by the Gauls. 

The civilized world had believed Rome " the Eternal City," and was 
thrown into unspeakable consternation by its fall (Davis' Beadings^ II, 
No. 122). The pagans explained it as a punishment for the desertion 



578 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§715 

of the old gods. This view was important enough so that St. Augustine 
(§ 702) wrote his City of God to refute it and to show that the true 
*' Eternal City" was not of this world. (Extracts from this work are 
given in Robinson's Beadings, eh. iii. See also Davis' Beadings, II, 
No. 123, for the feeling of the world for Rome even after her overthrow. ) 

715. The Visigothic Kingdom in Spain. — Alaric then led his 
host south, intending to cross to Africa by way of Sicily ; but 
he died ^ on the way, and was succeeded by his brother Ataulf 
(Adolph). Alaric had not been a mere destructive barbarian. 
He had great respect for Koman civilization and the Roman 
name, and when he captured Rome he ordered (an order not 
well obeyed) that the lives of the citizens should be spared and 
the treasures of the temples be left unmolested. Ataulf felt 
even more strongly the spell of Roman civilization Said he : — 

" It was at first my wish to destroy the Roman name, and erect in its 
place a Gothic empire, taking to myself the place and the powers of Caesar 
Augustus. But when experience taught me that the untamable barbarism 
of the Goths would not suffer them to live beneath the sway of law, . . . 
I chose the glory of renewing and maintaining by Gothic strength the 
fame of Rome, desiring to go down to posterity as the restorer of that 
Roman power which it was beyond my ability to replace." 

Meantime other Teutonic tribes had broken across the Rhine 
and were ravaging Gaul and Spain (§§ 716 ff). Ataulf married 
the sister of the Emperor Honorius and. accepted a commission 
as his lieutenant to conquer these new invaders. He led. his 
Goths out of Italy (which was what Honorius eared most for), 
conquered the Vandals who had seized Spain, and set up a Gothic 
kingdom there (JfH-J^ld A.D.), This was the first permanent 
Teutonic state within the limits of the old empire. 

The Visigothic kingdom at first included much also of south 
Gaul ; but that territory was to be lost in less than a century 
to the Franks (§ 742). The kingdom in Spain lasted three 
hundred years, to the Mohammedan conquest (§ 773), and, cen- 
turies later, its fragments grew together again into the Spain 
of modern times. 

* Special report; story of Alaric's burial (Davis' Readings, II, No. 120). 



§718] THE WANDERING OF THE PEOPLES 579 

B. The Rhine 

716. The Bursting of the Barrier. — For nearly forty years 
after tlie departure of the West Goths, Italy had peace ; but 
meantime the rest of the West was lost. Even before the sack 
of Rome, the Rhine frontier had given way. Clouds of Ger- 
mans had long been massing on that river. Some of the Roman 
troops there were withdrawn to strengthen Italy against 
Alaric's expected coming ; and, in 406, the barbarians forced 
a passage. Then, with little opposition, they spread themselves 
over Gaul and Spain. The leading peoples of the invasion 
were the Burgundians and the VandaZs, 

717. The Burgundians settled in southeastern Gaul, where 
their name has always remained. A little later, under their 
king, Gundobald, they produced the earliest written code of 
Teutonic law. Like the Goths, too, they soon came to regard 
themselves, in a vague way, as living under the authority of 
the Empire. A Burgundian king, thanking the emperor for 
the title Patrician, writes : — 

"My people is yours and to rule them delights me less than to serve 
you. . . . Our ancestors have always preferred what an emperor gave to 
all their fathers could bequeath. In ruling our nation, we hold ourselves 
but your lieutenants. You, whose divinely appointed sway no barrier 
bounds, whose beams shine from the Bosphorus into distant Gaul, employ 
us to administer the remoter regions of your empire ; your world is our 
Fatherland." 

718. The Vandals settled first in Spain ; but in 414 (§ 715), 
they were attacked there by the West Goths. The struggle 
was long and stern ; but, in 427, the Vandals withdrew, crossing 
into Africa. There, after ten years of fighting, they set up a 
new Teutonic kingdom with its capital at Carthage. 

These Vandals were the most untamable of all the Teutonic 
peoples, and the word "Vandalism" has become a synonym 
for wanton destructiveness. Seated at Carthage, they became 
pirates and terrorized the Mediterranean. They ravaged much 
of Sicily, and, in 455, under their king Geiseric, they invaded 



580 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§719 

Italy and sacked Rome in a way that made Alaric's capture 
seem merciful. For fourteen days the barbarians ravaged the 
ancient capital, loading their ships with the spoils which Rome 
had plundered from all the world. Ancient Carthage was 
avenged, and Scipio's foreboding (§ 462) had come true. 

To the infinite loss of the world, much of this plunder was 
ingulfed in the Mediterranean in a storm which destroyed a 
large part of the fleet on its way back to Africa. The Vandal 
kingdom lasted about a century longer, until it was overthrown 
by Belisarius, general of the Emperor Justinian (§ 736). At 
that time Africa was again reunited to the Eastern Empire. 

719. Franks had long had homes on both sides of the lower 
Rhine, from Cologne to the sea. They had been " allies " of 
Rome; but now they began to add to their territory by 
spreading themselves slowly westward over north Gaul. In 
the end they proved the most important of all the Teutonic 
invaders, but their real advance was not to begin until toward 
the close of the century (§§ 739 ff.). 

Meantime, in northwestern Gaul, a semblance of Roman 
authority was kept up by Roman generals, who were really 
independent kings. 

720. The Angles and Saxons in Britain. — In 408, the Roman 
legions were withdrawn from Britain to defend Italy against 
Alaric, and, to the dismay of the inhabitants, that island was 
abondoned by the imperial government. For many years, in 
the latter part of Roman rule, fierce Saxon pirates had been 
cruelly harassing the eastern coasts, — swooping down in their 
swift barks to burn, slay, and plunder, then sacrificing to Wo- 
den on the shore a tenth of their captives, and vanishing as 
quickly as they came.^ 

The civilized, peaceful Britons were now left to defend 
themselves against these terrible German marauders as well as 
against the untamed Celts beyond the northern wall. In 
despair, they finally called in the German raiders to beat ofE 

1 Church's Count of the Saxon Shore is a readable novel dealing with this 
period of England's history. 



$721] THE WANDERING OF THE PEOPLES 581 

the other foe, and these dangerous protectors soon began 
to seize the land for themselves. 

The chief invading tribes were the Jutes from the Danish 
peninsula (Jutland) and the Saxons and Angles (English) from 
its base. The Jutes made the first permanent settlement, 
about the middle of the century (449 a.d.), in southeastern 
Britain. The Saxons occupied the southern shore, and the 
Angles the eastern, carving out numerous petty states in a 
long series of cruel campaigns. Gradually these little units 
were welded into larger kingdoms, until there appeared seven 
prominent Teutonic states : Kent, the kingdom of the Jutes : 
Sussex, Essex, and Wessex (kingdoms of the South Saxons, 
East Saxons, and West Saxons) ; and the English kingdoms 
of East Anglia, Northumbria, and Merda. 

This conquest, unlike that of Gaul and Spain, was very slow. 
The inhabitants waged a gallant defense. It took the Ger- 
mans a century and a half (until about 600) to extend their 
sway over the eastern half of the island. 

721 . Non-Germanic Barbarians. — The Roman world had long 
since come in contact with Celts (Gauls and Britons) in western Europe 
and with Germans in the central parts. In the southeast, beyond the 
Danube and the Goths, there had appeared also a new people, the Slavs, 
who were soon to play, east of the Adriatic, the part played by the Teutons 
on the west. Though barbarians, these three races, Celts, Germans, and 
Slavs, all showed capacity for civilization. All of them, too, spoke lan- 
guages allied in some measure to the Greek and Roman. 

But somevirhat before 400, there appeared behind the Germans and 
Slavs a confused mass of more savage peoples, Huns, Tartars, Finns, 
Avars, pressing into Europe from the steppes of Asia. We call these 
invaders Turanians. They belonged to different stocks from the Euro- 
pean peoples, and resembled the ancient Scythians (§ 75). The pressure 
of these savages is said to have been one cause why the Teutons dashed 
so frantically upon the Roman barriers about the beginning of the fifth 
century. Now the Turanians themselves were to break in.i 

1 The student must remember that the Slavs were not a branch of the 
Germans, but a distinct race. (From them came the modern Russians, 
Bulgarians, Poles, Bohemians, Servians.) In like manner, the Huns must be 
kept distinct from both Teutons and Slavs. 



582 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§722 

722. The Huns and the Rallying of the West. — While the 
Teutons were busy setting up kingdoms in the crumbling 
empire, they and the E-omans were threatened for a moment 
with common ruin. Attila, king of the Huns, had built up a 
vast military power, reaching from central Asia into central 
Europe. It was his boast that grass never grew again where 
his horse's hoof had trod. Now, in the middle of the fifth 
century, his terrible hordes rolled resistlessly into Gaul. 

Happily the peoples of the West realized their danger and 
laid aside all rivalries to meet it. Theodoric, the hero-king 
of the Visigoths, brought up his host from Spain to fight 
under the Roman banner. Burgundian and Frank rallied 
from the corners of Gaul. And Aetius, "the Last of the 
Romans," ^ marshaled all these allies and the last great Roman 
army of the West^ against the countless Hunnish swarms 
which were reinforced by Tartar, Slav, Finn, and even by 
tributary German peoples. 

> 723. Chalons. —The fate of the world hung trembling in 
the balance, while the great " battle of the nations " was fought 
out at Chalons {Jf.51 A.D.). United though they were, the 
forces of civilization seemed insignificact before the innu- 
merable hosts of Asiatics. Theodoric fell gallantly, sword in 
hand. But at last the victory was won by the generalship of 
Aetius. (An ancient account is given in Davis' Readings, II, 
126.) Attila is said to have lost three hundred thousand men 
(greatly exaggerated numbers, no doubt) ; and with spent 
force his invasion rolled away to Italy and the East. 

" It was the perpetual question of history, the struggle told long ago by- 
Herodotus, the struggle between Europe and Asia, the struggle between 
cosmos and chaos — the struggle between Aetius and Attila. For Aetius 
was the man who now stood in the breach, and sounded the Roman 
trumpet to call the nations to do battle for the hopes of humanity and 



1 Despite his Romanized name, Aetius was a German. Much of his youth 
had heen spent among the Huns. Davis' Readings, II, 125, gives a Goth'e 
account of Attila. 

2 The first union of the Western races against '* the yellow peril," 



§ 725] ITALY 583 

defend the cause of reason against the champions of brute force. The 
menace of that monstrous host which was preparing to pass the Rhine 
was to exterminate the civilization that had grown up for centuries . . . 
and to paralyze the beginnings of Teutonic life. . . . 

"But the interests of the Teutons were more vitally concerned at this 
crisis than [even] the interests of the Empire. . . . Their nascent civili- 
zation would have been crushed under the yoke of that servitude which 
blights, and they would not have been able to learn longer at the feet of 
Borne the arts of peace and culture.'''' — Bury, Later Boman Umpire, 
I, 176. 

724. Attila and Leo. — Attila turned upon Rome ; but Pope Leo 
journeyed to the camp, and by his intercession turned the Hun 
from his prey.^ There may have been other causes to assist 
Leo. One ancient writer hints that Attila's army was wasting 
under Italian fever ; and no doubt it was harassed by the forces 
of Aetius hanging upon its rear. 

At all events, Attila withdrew from Italy and died shortly 
after. Then his empire fell to pieces, and the Teutons of 
Germany regained their freedom. 

One curious result followed Attila's invasion of Italy. To 
escape the Huns, some of the ancient Veneti (§ 332) of north- 
east Italy took refuge among swampy islands at the head of 
the Adriatic, and so began a settlement (or gave new strength 
to an old one) destined to grow into the great republic of 
Venice. 

ITALY IN THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES 

725. The " Empire in the West " had become limited to Italy. 
Early in the fifth century, as we have seen, Africa, Gaul, 
Spain, and Britain were abandoned to the Germans. But at the 
capital at Ravenna, amid its impenetrable swamps, the line of 
"emperors in the West" lasted from the division of the 
Empire between the sons of Theodosius (§ 680) until Romulus 
Augustulus, in 476 (§ 728). During these eighty years, the 
real power was held by German generals whose ability alone 

1 Robinson's Readings, I, 49-51, gives two ancient accounts. 



584 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§726 

supported the tottering throne. Until 455, however, this fact 
was much less clear than it was after that date. 

726. Summary: Story of Italy, 395-455. — The reign of Honorius 
(395-423), son of Theodosius the Great, has been referred to several times 
in the account of the Invasions. His great general StiUcho the Vandal, 
who had long held Alaric in check and who destroyed the hordes of 
Radogast (§§ 713, 714), was at last murdered by Honorius, lest he should 
grow too powerful. Then Alaric's Goths ravaged Italy and sacked 
Rome (410 a.d.). At the same time Britain was abandoned, and soon 
Spain, with most of Gaul, was lost to Burgundians, Franks, Vandals, and 
Goths (§§ 715, 718). But through the regard of Alaric's successor for 
Roman civilization, Italy was freed from her invaders, and for forty years 
rested in comparative peace. 

On the death of Honorius, Theodosius II, Emperor in the East, gave 
the western throne to Valentinian III^ son of a daughter of Theodosius 
the Great. Valentinian, a weak and wicked prince, reigned from 425 to 
455. Such part of the Empire as was saved owed its perservation to 
Aetius, the imperial general who for many years upheld Roman authority 
in much of Gaul against the German peoples, and who finally united these 
Germans to repulse Attila at Chalons. Aetius expected to marry his son 
to the daughter of the emperor, and so secure the throne for his family ; 
but Valentinian, jealous of his great protector, murdered him. Soon 
afterward Valentinian was himself murdered by a Roman senator 
Maximus, whose home he had outraged. 

Maximus seized the throne and compelled Eudoxia, the widow of his 
victim, to marry him. Eudoxia invited Geiseric, king of the Vandals, to 
avenge her. The Vandals captured Rome (§ 718), and Maximus was 
slain, after a three months' reign. 

727. Rikimer and Orestes (456-476). — After the Vandal raid, 
power in Italy fell to Count Rikimer, a German general, who 
in sixteen years (456-472) set up and deposed four puppet 
emperors. That is, Rikimer did successfully what Honorius and 
Valentinian had suspected StiUcho and Aetius of planning to do. 

Then Orestes, another general of the Empire, advanced a 
step beyond the policy of Kikimer. He deposed the reigning 
prince and set his own son upon the throne, while he himself 
ruled as the real power for four years, until he was overthrown 
and slain by Odovaker (Odoacer), yet another German officer 
in the imperial service. 



§ 728] ITALY 585 

728« Odovaker advanced another step in the attack upon the 
Empire in the West. He dethroned the boy, Romulus Augus- 
tus the Little, the son of Orestes (476 a.d.), and sent him to 
live in luxurious imprisonment in a villa near Naples. Odo- 
vaker then ruled without even the form of an Emperor in Italy. 
He did not, however, dare call himself king of Italy. Instead, 
he claimed to represent the distant emperor at Constantinople. 
At his command, the Senate of Eome sent to Zeno (then em- 
peror in the East) the diadem and royal robes, urging that the 
West did not need a separate emperor. They asked, therefore, 
that Zeno receive the "diocese" of Italy as part of his do- 
minion, and intrust its government to Odovaker as his lieu- 
tenant.^ 

Thus, in name, Italy became a province of the Greek Em- 
pire,2 and, after 476, there was no emperor in the West for more 
than three hundred years. Odovaker's power really rested upon 
the support of German tribes who made up the Roman army 
in the peninsula. Of one of these tribes (the Heruli) he was 
king. But with the native Italians his authority, in theory, 
came from his position as the representative of the emperor at 
Constantinople. 

Odovaker tried to reconcile his German and his Roman sub- 
jects. He gathered about him Roman philosophers and states- 
men, established good order, and ruled firmly for many years, 
until he was overthrown by a powerful German people whose 
king was to carry his work still further (§ 730). 

The year 476 is sometimes said to have seen the "Fall of the Empire." 
The act of Odovaker in that year, however, is simply a continuation of 
the policy of Aetius, Rikimer, and Orestes, and that policy was to be 
carried still further by Theodoric (§ 731). Probably the name of the 
boy-emperor who lost the throne in 476 has had much to do with exagger- 
ating the importance of the date. It was very tempting to say that the 
history of Rome and of the Empire came to an end with a ruler who bore 
the name of the founder of the city and the founder of the Empire. The 
date, however, has no more real significance than 378, 410, or 493. 

1 Cf . like commissions to Goths, Burgundians, and Franks (§§ 713, 717, 754) 
3 For this name, see § 734, 



586 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§729 

729. The Ostrogoths before they entered Italy. — When the 
West Goths sought refuge south of the Danube in 376 (§ 712), 
an eastern division of the same race had submitted to the Huns. 
On the death of Attila, these East Groths (Ostrogoths) recovered 
their independence. Soon afterward they forced their way into 
the provinces south of the Danube. There they dwelt for thirty 
years, sometimes as allies of the Empire, sometimes as enemies. 

Their young king, Theodoric,^ was brought up at the imperial 
court as a hostage. He had felt the charm of Roman civilization 
and adopted its culture ; but, with it all, he remained a typical 
Teutonic hero, — of gigantic stature and romantic temper, a 
matchless warrior, impetuous in strife and wise in counsel, — 
the kingliest figure of all the centuries of the invasions. 

730. The Conquest of Italy. — In 489, Theodoric asked leave 
from Zeno to reconquer Italy for the Empire. Both Theodoric 
and Odovaker had been growing too powerful to please the em- 
peror, who would have been glad to destroy either barbarian 
by the other. Accordingly, with magnificent ceremonial he ap- 
pointed Theodoric " patrician," and gave the desired commission. 

Odovaker made a gallant resistance for four years. Theodo- 
ric beat him at Verona in a great battle, and then besieged 
him in the fortress of Ravenna. Odovaker finally surrendered 
on terms, but soon after was murdered at a banquet, on some 
suspicion, by Theodoric's own hand, — the one sad blot on the 
great Goth's fame. 

731. "Theodoric the Civilizer," 493-526 A.D. — Then began 
a Gothic kingdom in Italy, like the Teutonic states in Spain 
and Burgundy, and one that deserved a better fate than was 
to befall it. The Ostrogoths had come in as a nation, with 
women and children. They took a third of the lands of Italy, 
but all the rights of the Roman population were respected 
scrupulously. Goth and Roman lived in harmony side by side, 
each under his own law. Cities were rebuilt and new ones 

1 For this Theodoric, see Davis' Readings, II, 127. He must not be confused 
with Theodoric the West Goth, § 722r Students will enjoy Hodgkin's Th^< 
odoric the Goth. 



§ 731] ITALY 587 

founded, witli a new period of architectural splendor. The 
land was subdivided into small estates. Agriculture revived, 
and Italy once oiore raised her own food. Theodoric's long 



Church of San Vitale at Ravenna (time of Theodoric). 

reign was peaceful, prosperous, and happy, and the peninsula 
began to recover her former greatness. 

732. The " Empire " of Theodoric extended, indeed, far beyond 
Italy. He organized an alliance reaching over all the TeutoniG 



588 



FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES 



[§732 



states of the West. His wife was a Frankish princess ; the 
Burgundian and Visigothic kings were his sons-in-law ; his 
sister was married to the king of the Vandals. All these 
peoples recognized a certain preeminence in "Theodoric the 
Great." It seemed as though he were about to reunite the West 
into a great Teutonic empire, and, by three centuries, anticipate 
Charles the Great (§§ 785 ff.). 

733. Weak Points. -^ — Aiter all, however, the Goths were 
strangers, ruling a Roman population vastly larger than them- 
selves. More serious still, they were Arians. Theodoric had 
given perfect freedom to the orthodox Christians ; but the more 
zealous of these found it unbearable to be ruled by heretics. 
Theodoric's last years were darkened by plots among the 
Romans to bring in the orthodox Eastern power ; and the night 
after his death, so it was told, a holy hermit saw his soul flung 
down the crater of Stromboli. 

A strong successor perhaps could yet have maintained the 
state ; but Theodoric left only a daughter. The Goths at once 
fell into factions among themselves ; and soon the kingdom 
was attacked and destroyed by the Empire (§ 736), to whose 
story we must turn for a moment. 



THE EMPIRE AT CONSTANTINOPLE 

734. The "Greek" Empire. — The Latin half of the empire 
had now crumbled away. There was left the empire east of 
the Adriatic. This part had always been essentially Greek in 

culture (§ 475). It called 
itself Roman for the next 
ten centuries ; but we com- 
monly speak of it as the 
Greek Empire or the By- 
zantine Empire. Sepa- 
rated from the West, it 
A Gold Coin of Theodosius II (§§ 726, rapidly grew more and 
737). Its distinctive character is called ^^^^ Oriental in charac 
Byzantine, and is found in the art oi the 
Eastern Empire after this date. ter. It preserved Greek 




§737] THE GREEK EMPIRE 589 

learning, and warded off Persian and Arabian conquest; but 
for several centuries it did not greatly influence western Europe 
except through the work of Justinian (§ 736).* 

735. Slav Invasions. — When Theodoric led his Goths into 
Italy, he left the line of the Danube open to the Slavs (§ 721). 
That people had been filtering into the East, as the Teutons 
had into the West, as slaves, coloni, and mercenaries. Now, 
in 493, in a period of weak rulers, came their first real invasion. 
Then, for a generation, successive hordes poured in, penetrating 
as far as Greece. Even the neighborhood of Constantinople 
was saved only by a Long Wall which protected the narrow 
tongue of land, seventy-eight miles across, on which the capital 
stood. Happily, before it was too late, another strong em- 
peror arose. 

736. Justinian the Great (527-565 A.D.) renewed the old 
frontier of the Danube, saved Europe from a threatened Persian 
conquest, and then turned to restore the imperial power in the 
West. 

He reconquered Africa, the Mediterranean islands, and part 
of Spain ; and he caught eagerly at the conditions in Italy, 
after the death of Theodoric, to regain that land and the ancient 
Roman capital. His generals, Belisarms and Narses, were vic- 
torious there also, but only after a dreadful twenty years' war 
which destroyed at once the Gothic race and the rising greatness 
of the peninsula. Rome itself was sacked once more (by the 
Gothic king, Totila, 546 a.d.), and left for eleven days absolutely 
uninhabited. 

737. The Justinian Code. — Justinian is best remembered for 
his work in bringing about the codification of the Roman law. 
In the course of centuries that law had become an intolerable 
maze. Julius Caesar had planned to codify it, and the need 
had grown vastly more pressing since his time. A beginning 
of the work had been made by TJieodosius II, Emperor of the 
East, and the Theodosian Code was published in 438.^ Now, a 

1 On the Greek Empire, see Davis' Readings, II, Nos. 128-130. 

2 Extracts are given in Robinson's Readings, ch. ii. 



590 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§ 738 

century later, under Justinian, the great task was completed. 
A commission of able lawyers put the whole body of the law 
into a new form, marvelously compact, clear, and orderly. 

This benefited not only the empire : it made easier the pres- 
ervation of Roman law and its adoption by the nations of Eu- 
rope in after times (cf. § 762). The reconquest of Italy by 
Justinian established the Code in that land. Thence, in later 
centuries, it spread over the West, and became the foundation 
of all modern legal study in continental Europe, and the basis 
of nearly all codes of law now in existence. 

Says Ihne {Early Rome, 2), "Every one of us is benefited directly or 
indirectly by this legacy of the Roman people — a legacy as valuable as 
the literary and artistic models which we owe to the great writers and 
sculptors of Greece. " And Woodrow Wilson declares (Tlie State, 158) 
that Roman Law " has furnished Europe with many, if not most, of her 
principles of private right." i 

738. Italy divided between the Empire and the Lombards. — . 

When the East Goths moved into Italy, the Lombards, from 
beyond the Danube, had crossed that river and occupied the 
Balkan districts which the Goths had vacated. In 568, this 
new German people moved on again, — this time into Italy, 
most of which they soon conquered. Their chief kingdom was 
in the Po valley (which ever since has kept the name Lom- 
bardy), while Lombard " dukedoms " were scattered over other 
parts of the peninsula. The Empire retained (1) the Exarchate 
of Ravenna on the Adriatic, (2) Rome, with a little surround- 
ing territory on the west coast, and (3) the extreme south. 
This south was to remain Greek for centuries, — the first and 
the last part of Italy to be Greek. 

Thus the middle land, for which Roman and Teuton had strug- 
gled through two centuries, was at last divided between them, and 

1 English and American law is always regarded, properly, as having a very 
distinct origin ; but Roman law profoundly affected legal development even 
in England and so in the United States, while the law of Louisiana came 
very directly from it through the French code. Wilson's The State, H2- 
161, gives an excellent account of the growth of Roman Law. 



.^/ 




f 



§739] THE FRANKS 591 

shattered into fragments in the process (map after page 622). 
Italy was not again united until 1870. Probably, too, no other 
land suffered as much in the two centuries of invasions as this 
beautiful peninsula, which had so long been mistress of the 
Mediterranean world. 

"Taking one's stand at Rome, and looking toward the north, what 
does one see for nearly one hundred years ? Wave after wave rising out 
of the north, the land of night and wonder and the terrible unknown 
. . . and they dash against the Alps, and roll over through the mountain 
passes, into the fertile plains below. Then . . . you discover that the waves 
are living men, women, and children, horses, dogs, and cattle, all rush- 
ing headlong into that great whirlpool of Italy. And yet the gulf is never 
full. The earth drinks up the blood ; the bones decay into the fruitful 
soil ; the very names and memories of whole tribes are washed away. 
And the result of an immigration which may be counted by hundreds of 
thousands is — that all the land is waste." — Kingsley, Boman and Teu- 
ton^ 58. 

THE FRANKS 

739. Preeminence among the Teutonic Conquerors. — The 

early conquests of the Franks in North Gaul have been re- 
ferred to (§ 719). Their real advance began a little before 
the year 500, — almost at the time of the rise of the East 
Goths. This was some eighty years later than the making of 
bhe Vandal, Burgundian, and Visigothic kingdoms, and as 
much earlier than the Lombard kingdom. 

To the Franks fell the work of consolidating the Teutonic 
states into a mighty empire. Their final success was due, in 
the main, to two causes. 

a. They did not migrate to distant lands, but only expanded 
from their original home. Their state, therefore, kept a large 
unmixed Teutonic element, while the other conquering nations 
lost themselves in the Roman populations among whom they 
settled. 

h. When they adopted Christianity, it was the orthodox 
form instead of Arianism. This gained them support from 
the Romanized populations in their wars with the other 
Teutons. 



592 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES (§740 

740. Clovis ; Early Conquests. — Until nearly 500, the Franks 
were pagans. Nor were they a nation : they were split into 
petty divisions, without a common king. The founder of their 
greatness was Clovis (Clodowig, Louis). In 481, at the age of 
fifteen, he became king of a petty tribe near the mouth of the 
Khine. In 486, he attacked the Roman possessions in north 
Gaul, and, after a victory at JSoissons, added them to his king- 
dom. Ten years later he conquered the Alemanni, who had 
invaded Gaul, in a great battle near Strassburg, and made tribu- 
tary their territory beyond the Rhine. 

741. The Conversion of Clovis.^ — The real importance of the 
battle of Strassburg lies in this — that it was the occasion for 
the conversion of Clovis. His wife, Clotilda, was a Burgundian 
princess, but, unlike most of her nation, she was a devout 
Catholic. In a crisis in the battle, Clovis had vowed to serve 
the God of Clotilda if He would grant victory. In conse- 
quence, the king and three thousand of his warriors were 
baptized immediately afterward. 

Clovis was influenced, no doubt, by keen political insight. 
In the coming struggles with the Arian Goths and Burgun- 
dians, it was to be of immense advantage to have the subject 
Roman populations on his side, as an orthodox sovereign, 
against their own hated heretic rulers. The conversion was 
a chief agency, therefore, in building up the great Frankish 
state. 

742. Later Conquests by Clovis and his Sons. — His conver- 
sion furnished Clovis with a pretext for new advances. De- 
claring it intolerable that those " Arian dogs " should possess 
the fairest provinces of Gaul, he attacked both Burgundians 
and Visigoths, driving the latter for the most part beyond the 
Pyrenees. Then, by a horrible series of bloody treacheries 
during the remainder of his thirty years' reign, he got rid of 
the kings of the other tribes of the Franks (Davis' Headings, 

1 Davis' Readings, II, No. 131, gives two accounts from monkish chroni- 
cles. Some extracts from an interesting account by Gregory of Tours are 
given in Robinson's Readings, I, 61-55. 



§744] THE LATER MEROVINGIANS 593 

II, No. 132), and consolidated that whole people under his 
sole rule. "Thus," says the pious chronicler, Gregory of 
Tours, " did God daily deliver the enemies of Clovis into his 
hand, because he walked before His face with an upright heart.'' 
The sons of Clovis completed the subjugation of Burgundy, 
and added Bavaria and Thuringia, as tributaries, to the Frank- 
ish state. Tlie last two districts lay on the German side of the 
Rhine, ivell beyond the borders of the old Roman world. 

743. Empire of the Franks in the Seventh Century. — In fifty 
years, mainly through the cool intellect and ferocious energy of 
one brutal savage, a little Teutonic tribe had grown into the 
great Frankish state. That state included nearly the whole of 
modern France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany 
almost to the Elbe (except for the lands of the heathen Saxons 
toward the mouth of that river). 

Such territory to-day would make tiae greatest power in 
Europe. In the sixth and seventh centuries its preeminence 
was even more marked. Gothic Spain was weakened by quar- 
rels between Arian and Catholic ; Italy was torn to shreds ; 
Britain was in chaos (§ 745) ; non-Frankish Germany was 
filled with savage, unorganized tribes. Tlie only real rivals of 
the Frankish state were the Greek Empire and a new Moham- 
medan power which was just rising in Arabia (§§ 770 ff.) 
and which was soon to contest Europe with both Greek and 
Frank. 

744. The Later Merovingians. — The family of Clovis is 
known, from his grandfather Merovig, as Meroviiigian. It kept 
the throne for two centuries after Clovis' death. In the first 
half of the period the rulers were commonly men of ruthless 
energy. In the second half they became phantom kings, and 
all real authority was exercised by great nobles, who finally 
replaced the Merovingians with a new royal line (§§ 765 ff.). 

The two hundred years make a dismal story of greed, family 
hate, treachery, vice, brutality, and murder. Few chapters in 
history are so unattractive. The empire was divided among 
the four sons of Clovis, according to Frankish custom. The 



594 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES [§ 74S 

fragments were reunited under one of these sons, by methoda 
similar to those of Clovis himself. Then it was again divided; 
and so on for long periods. The Franks themselves spread 
very little south of the Loire. North and South Gaul remained 
distinct from each other in blood and character (§§ 739, 764), 
but political unity was preserved under Frankish rule. 

For Further Reading on the Franks through the time of Clovis, see 
especially Oman's Dark Ages, ch. iv, and Sergeant's Franks. 

GROWTH OF THE TEUTONIC STATES IN BRITAIN i 

745. Slowness of the Teutonic Conquest. — Great provinces, 
like Gaul or Spain, fell to the Vandals or Franks after one or 
two battles with the Eoman armies. The natives themselves 
made almost no resistance in the field. But, as we have seen, 
in Britain, where there were no Roman armies, the Teutonic 
invaders in 150 years of incessant warfare conquered only half 
the island. 

Causes for this delay are to be found both in the nature of 
the invasion and in the condition of the island. 

a. The Saxons at home were living in petty tribes, under no 
common government, and therefore they could make no great 
organized attack. Coming by sea, too, they necessarily came 
only in small bands. Moreover, they were still pagans, and, 
unlike the Franks, they were untouched by Roman civilization. 
Therefore they spread ruthless destruction and provoked a 
more desperate resistance. 

b. Britain was less completely Romanized than were the 
continental provinces: there was more of forest and marsh, and 
a less extensive network of Roman roads. Hence the natives 
found it easier to make repeated stands. The Britons, too, 
had not so completely laid aside military habits as had the 
Gauls. 

746. England preeminently Teutonic. — Because the conquest 
was so slow, it was thorough. Elsewhere the invaders were soon 

1 Review § 720. 




After 607 the Kingdom of the West Goths in Gi 




\ \ 

The 
GERMANIC KINGDOMS \ 

established on 

ROMAN SOIL 

Close of Fifth Century 

(Britain in Sixth Century) 

SCALE OF MILES 



jniteito a fiiaalL60u.theKajjtBij) (Septdmaiua) 



§748] TEUTONIC STATES IN BRITAIN 595 

absorbed by the larger native populations. England alone, of 
all the Roman provinces seized by the Teutons, became strictly 
a Teutonic state. In the eastern half of the island, in partic- 
ular, Roman institutions, the Roman language, Christianity, 
even names, for the most part, vanished, and the Romanized 
natives were slain, driven out, or enslaved. 

747. Conversion. — About the year 600, Christianity began 
to win its way among these heathen conquerors. In the north 
of England, the early missionaries came mainly from the old 
(Celtic) Christian church still surviving in western Britain and 
in Ireland, long cut off from close connection with the rest of 
Christendom. The south, on the other hand, was converted by 
missionaries sent out directly by the pope of Rome ; and the 
rulers of the north were soon brought to accept this better or- 
ganized form of Christianity. The victory of the Roman Church 
dates from the famous Council of WJiitby in Northumbria, in 
664 A.D. 

748. Three political results followed the conversion to Chris- 
tianity : — 

Warfare with the native Britons became milder and more 
like ordinary wars between rival states. 

The ecclesiastical union of the island helped to create the 
later political union. The different states had a common church 
council before they had one king and one political Assembly. 

The adoption of the same form of Christianity and the same 
church government as that on the Continent brought the island 
back into the general current of European politics. 



Exercise. — (1) Trace each barbarian people from the crossing of the 
barriers to the last mention in this period. (2) Trace the history of Gaul, 
Italy, and Spain, through the period, noting for each land what peoples 
left important elements in race or institutions. (In both exercises, the 
device of catchwords may be used with advantage ; and students may be 
encouraged to prepare tables, showing, in separate columns, the peoples, 
events, leaders, dates, etc.) (3) List battles, with leaders and dates, for 
rapid "fact-drills." (4) The field is a good one for exercises calling for 
historical imagination (see page 241). 



CHAPTER XLV 

THE STATE OF WESTERN EUROPE, 400-800 A.D. 

( The Dark Ages) 

749. Plan of Treatment. — We have traced the movements of peoples 
and the growth of new states during the two centuries of invasions. 
During the next two centuries (600-800) the political story has to do with 
four great movements : (1) the continued growth of the Frankish state, 
until it included most of civilized Western Europe; (2) the rise of the 
Mohammedans in Asia and Africa, and their repulse from Europe by the 
Greek Empire on the East and by the Franks on the West ; (3) the growth 
of the papacy into a temporal power ; i and (4) the rise of the Empire of 
Charlemagne, out of the alliance of the papacy and the Franks. 

These political movements will be treated in the next chapter. But 
first, in order to understand them, we interrupt the story to survey briefly 
the condition into which the invasions plunged Western Europe for the 
whole four centuries, — (1) the chaos and misery ; (2) the survival of 
some of the Roman civilization ; and (3) the new institutions which were 
growing up. Such a survey is the subject of this chapter. 

750. The Loss to Civilization. — After all allowances are made, 
the invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries remain the most 
terrible catastrophe that ever befell so great a civilized society. 
It took long to restore order. The seventh and eighth centuries, 
after the invasions themselves had ceased, are a dreary period 
of confusion, lawlessness, and ignorance, — the lowest point 
ever reached by European civilization. The whole four hun- 
dred years, from 400 to 800, are properly called the Dark Ages. 

During these long centuries there was no tranquil leisure, and 
therefore no study. There was little security, and therefore 

1 The term " temporal " is used in contrast with " spiritual. " The temporal 
power of the pope means his power as a prince, like kings and other potentates 
of this world, in contrast with his power in religious matters — matters not 
"temporal" but eternal. 

596 



i 



§751] THE "DARK AGES" 597 

little labor. While the Franks and Goths were learning the 
rudiments of civilized life, the Latins were losing all but the 
rudiments, — and, for a time, they were losing faster than 
the Germans gained. Classical literature became extinct. The 
old Roman schools disappeared, or were represented only by 
new monastic schools with meager instruction. 

751. New Causes for Decline in Culture. — Roman civilization, 
as we have noticed, had been falling away for two centuries 
before the barbarian conquests began. The disorder and 
destruction connected with the two hundred years of invasions 
added tremendously to the decay ; and then, when at last the 
invaders had settled down, two causes of decline were added 
to the old ones. 

a. The new ruling classes were grossly ignorant. They did 
not care for the old literature and science, even so far as it had 
survived. Few of the greatest nobles could read, or write 
their names. 

b. More and more the language -of everyday speech grew away 
from the literary language in which the remains of the old 
knowledge was preserved. This process had begun long be- 
fore; but, until the coming of the Teutons, a man who spoke 
the usual language in Gaul or Spain could also, without much 
difficulty, understand the Latin if he heard it. The coming of 
the barbarians hastened the change in the spoken language. 
The old inflections were disregarded ; words were corrupted in 
form; new Teutonic words were added.^ The language of 
learning was left so far from the spoken language that it be- 
came " dead." It could be acquired only by special study, and 
was known only to the clergy. Even by them it was known 
very imperfectly. 

At the same time the old Roman civilization, in many obscure 
ways, did survive. We take up next the causes of the survival. 

iThe many different dialects which were springing up in the different 
parts of Gaul, Burgundy, Spain, Italy, were finally to grow into French, 
Spanish, and Italian. These languages — mingled of Teutonic and Roman 
elements — are called Romance languages. 



598 WESTERN EUROPE, 400-800 A.D. [§ 752 

752. The barbarian conquests had been accomplished by small 
numbers. The invasions did not greatly change the race- 
character of the population in Western Europe (outside of 
Britain). The forces which occupied the western Roman 
world in the fifth century were far smaller than had been 
driven back in rout many times before. The highest estimate 
for the whole Burgundian nation is eighty thousand. The 
Vandals counted no more. The Visigoths, when they conquered 
Spain, hardly exceeded thirty thousand warriors. Clovis com- 
manded less than six thousand men when he annexed Roman 
Gaul. 

753. The final conquests (outside Britain) were attended with 
little warfare. When the Roman legions had been beaten in 
the field, the struggle was over. The provincials were largely 
German already (§ 697) ; and in any case they had come to be 
indifferent to a change of masters. 

754. The barbarians felt a wholesome reverence for the Roman 
Empire and for all connected with it. This important fact has 
been illustrated repeatedly in the preceding story. Even 
Clovis was delighted when the emperor at Constantinople sent 
him an appointment as " consul " and as a lieutenant of the 
Empire. 

The Germans were awed by the marvelous devices, the 
massive structures, the stately pomp, of the civilization they 
had conquered. This mood is shown by the exclamation of a 
Gothic king when first he visited Constantinople : " Without 
doubt the emperor is a god on earth, and he who attacks him 
is guilty of his own blood." 

755. The Influence of the Old Populations. — The Germans 
already within the Empire in the year 400 had been largely 
Romanized. The new invaders settled among populations ten, 
twenty, or fifty times their own numbers. At first the Teutons 
were the rulers and the bulk of the large landlords. They 
formed the government and the aristocratic forces in rural 
society. But the towns, so far as they survived at all, with their 
varied industries, remained Roman. For a long time, too, the 



§756] SAVING FORCES 599 

old population furnished most of the clergy. From them, also, 
came the secretaries of the conquering lords and many confiden- 
tial officers. Gradually these various forces secured the adop- 
tion of many customs of the old civilization by the conquerors. 
The influence of the church in this respect was so important 
that it demands further treatment. 

756. The Church and the Barbarians. — The barbarian con- 
verts to Christianity understood its teachings of love, purity, 
and gentleness very imperfectly. Christianity raised the new 
nations ; but in the effort it was dragged down part way to 
their level. More emphasis was placed on ceremonies and 
forms. The clergy, especially the higher clergy, became some- 
times ambitious' and worldly lords, preachers of a coarse and 
superficial religion, men who allied themselves to the schemes 
of wicked rulers, lived vicious lives, and were unable to under- 
stand the services they mumbled. 

All this was to be expected. The church as a whole could 
not be a great deal better than the people of the time, — who 
had to furnish the clergy and the flocks. The danger is that 
the student will overrate the degradation. In spite of it, the 
church ivas the salt that kept the world sweet for later times. In 
the wildest disorder of the sixth and seventh centuries there 
were great numbers of priests, monks, and bishops inspired 
with zeal for righteousness and love for men; and there were 
found also in all ranks of society some willing followers of 
such teachers. The church, as a whole, protected the weak, 
and stood for peace, industry, and right living.^ 

Moreover, the church had its own government. The new 
rulers of the land did not greatly interfere with it. Therefore 
it kept up the old forms and habits and the principles of the 
Roman law more than any other part of Western society. 

The church of those centuries is sometimes accused by Protestant 
writers of putting all stress upon forms and of neglecting totally the 

1 Some interesting facts about the church in this period are given in Davis' 
Headings, II, No. 135. 



600 



WESTERN EUROPE, 400-800 A.D. 



[§75 



duty of man to man. The charge is bitterly unjust. Many sermoms 
of the seventh century place peculiar emphasis upon good works, "It 
is not enough," says the good Bishop St. Eloy to his flock, in a fervent 
exhortation, — " It is not enough, most dearly beloved, for you to have 
received the name of Christians if you do not do Christian v^^orks. . . . 
Come, therefore, frequently to church ; humbly seek the patronage of 
the saints ; keep the Lord's day in reverence of the resurrection, with- 
out any servile work ; celebrate the festivals of the saints with devout 
feeling; love your neighbors as yourselves; what you would desire to 
be done to you by others, that do you to others ; what you would not 
have done to you, do to no one; before all things have charity, for 
charity covereth a multitude of sins ; be hospitable, humble, casting your 
care upon God, for he careth for you ; visit the sick ; seek out the cap- 
tives ; receive strangers ; feed the hungry ; clothe the naked ; set at 
naught soothsayers and magicians; let your weights and measures be 
fair, your balance just, your bushel and your pint honest. . . ." 

757. Summary. — The "Dark Ages/' black as they were, 
did not uproot civilization. The conquerors were few; 
there was little actual fighting; the old population and the 




Tomb of Theodoric at Ravenna. — The most famous surviving Gothic 

monument. 



§759] MONASTICISM 601 

church kept on living in many respects in the old ways. 
Most important of all, the barbarian conquerors did not wish 
to destroy the civilization : they wished to possess it. Much, 
of course, they did destroy. Part they ruined in the wanton 
mood of children, — as in the story of the warrior who dashed 
his battle-ax at the beautiful mosaic floor to see whether the 
swan swimming there were alive. More was lost because they 
did not understand its use. But much survived ; and much 
which at the time seemed ruined was sooner or later to be 
recovered by the Teutons themselves, — so that, says George 
Burton Adams, "almost, if not quite, every achievement of 
the Greeks and the Romans in thought, science, law, and the 
practical arts is now a part of our civilization." This complete 
recovery, however, was a matter of some centuries later, beyond 
the period of this volume. 

758. The idea of the Roman Empire as the one legitimate 
universal government survived. We can see now that the 
Empire had passed away in the West before the year 500. 
But men of that day did not see it. They could not believe 
that the dominion of the " Eternal City " was dead ; and 
therefore it did not altogether die. For three hundred years 
it lived on, in the minds of men, until Charlemagne made it 
again external fact (§ 793). To understand the sixth, seventh, 
and eighth centuries, it is needful to remember this truth. 

"Teutonic kings ruled in tlie West, but nowhere (except in England) 
had they become national sovereigns in the eyes of the people of the land. 
They were simply the chiefs of their own peoples (Goths, Franks, etc.), 
reigning in the midst of a Roman population who looked to the Caesar of 
New Borne [Constantinople] as their lawful sovereign." — Condensed 
from Freeman. 

759. Monasticism. — The Eastern Church gave rise early 
to a class of hermits, who strove each to save his own soul 
by tormenting his body and by secluding himself from the 
world.^ The persecutions in the third century augmented 

1 Davis' Readings, II, 136, has an account of one extreme case. 



602 WESTERN EUROPE, 400-800 A.D. [§ 759 

the members of these fugitives from society, until the Egyp. 
tian and Syrian deserts swarmed with tens of thousands of 
them. In some cases they came to unite into small bodies 
with common rules of life. In the latter part of the fourth 
century this idea of religious communities was transplanted 
to the West, and the long anarchy following the invasions 
gave peculiar inducements to such a life. 

Thus arose monasticism, one of the most powerful medieval ^ 
institutions. The fundamental causes were : (1) the longing 
for a life of quiet religious devotion, and (2) the conditions 
which made quiet living impossible except through some such 
withdrawal from society. 

European monasticism differed widely from its model in 
the East. The monks in the West did believe that holy living 
lay, in part, in crushing natural instincts and affections ; but 
they never imitated the excesses of the hermits of the East. 
Even within their quiet walls, they wisely sought escape from 
temptation, not in idleness, but in active and incessant work. 
Their very motto was, " To work is to pray." The old proverb 
of Satan and idle hands strikes a keynote in monasticism. 

The growth of many a rich monastery was a romantic story 
of humble beginnings, lofty enthusiasm, and noble service. 
A body of enthusiasts, uniting for mutual religious aid, would 
raise a few rude buildings in a pestilential marsh or in a 
wilderness. Gradually their numbers grew ; the marsh was 
drained, or the desert became a garden through their toil; 
the first plain structures gave way to massive and stately 
towers ; lords or kings gave lands ; fugitive slaves and serfs 
tilled them ; perhaps villages or towns sprang up upon them, 
under the rule of the abbot. 

Such was the growth of hundreds of early communities. 

1 The in-pouring of the Teutons between 378 and 476 is sometimes said to 
close Ancient History. Those who speak in this way divide history into 
Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, and give the name Medieval to the period 
from about 400 to about 1500 a.d. This book follows a different classification 
(§ 4), but it sometimes uses the expressions Medieval and Middle Age, as 
descriptive terms, for the period to which they are commonly applied. 



§ 759] MONASTICISM 603 

Similar institutions for women afforded a much-needed refuge 
for great numbers of that sex in that troublous age. At first 
each monastery or nunnery was a rule unto itself. Finally the 
various communities became united in great brotherhoods. In 
particular, St, Benedict, in the sixth century, published and 
preached rules for a monastic life that were widely adopted. 
Two hundred years later, nearly all monks in Western Europe 
were Benedictines. The order at its height is said to have 
counted over forty thousand monasteries. 

Each Benedictine took the three vows of poverty, chastity, and 
obedience. (1) He renounced all wealth for himself (though 
the monastery might become wealthy). (2) He renounced 
marriage. (3) He renounced his own will in all things, in 
favor of that of his superior in the monastery, — the abbot or 
prior. To all this was added the obligation of work. 

During the Middle Ages, the monks were the most skillful 
and industrious tillers of the soil. They taught neighboring 
youth in their schools. They lovingly copied and illustrated 
manuscripts, and so preserved whatever learning was saved at 
the time in the West. They themselves produced whatever new 
literature Europe had for some centuries. In particular, they 
cared for the poor and suffering. For many centuries of dis- 
order and violence the monasteries were to Western Europe 
the only almshouses, inns, asylums, hospitals, and schools. 

At first, a monastery was a religious association of laymen; 
but gradually the monks became the most zealous of mission- 
aries and the most devoted of preachers. As they took up the 
duties of the clergy, there arose a long struggle between them 
and the bishops. The bishops desired to exercise authority 
over them as over other lower clergy : the monks insisted 
upon independence under their own abbots, and finally won it 
by grants from the popes. Because subject to rule, the monks 
became known as regular clergy, while the ordinary clergy 
were styled secular (" belonging to the world ").^ 

1 Davis' Readings, II, 137, gives extracts from the " Rule of St. Benedict." 
Read Munro and Sellery, Medieval Civilization, eh. ix, on the "Economic 



604 WESTERN EUROPE, 400-800 A.D. [§ 760 

760. Development of Teutonic Law. — When the barbarians 
entered the Empire, their law was unwritten custom. Much 
of it continued so, especially in England ; but, under the in- 
fluence of Roman ideas, the tribes on the continent soon began 
to put parts of their law in the form of written codes (cf. 717). 
These codes throw interesting sidelights upon the times. 
(See Davis' Readings, II, No. 133.) Three points may be 
noted here. 

a. ^^ Law was personal.''^ That is, a man carried his law 
with him wherever he went. It was felt that a Roman, a 
Goth, a Burgundian, even though all were members of the 
Frankish state, should each be judged, not by Frankish law, 
but by the law of his own people. In modern civilized 
countries, law is territorial, not personal. That is, all persons 
in a given country come under the same law, — the law of the 
land. 

h. The forms of trial. — When a man, in a trial, wished to 
prove himself innocent, or to prove another man guilty of 
some charge, he did not try to bring evidence of the fact. 
Proof consisted in an appeal to God to show the right. There 
were three kinds of such appeal. 

The accused and accuser swore solemnly to their statements, 
Each was backed by his compurgators, — not witnesses, but 
persons who swore they believed that their man was telling 
the truth.^ To swear falsely was to invite the divine ven- 
geance; and stories are told of men who fell dead with the 
judicial lie on their lips. This form of trial was compurgation. 

Sometimes the trial was by ordeal. The accused tried to 

Services of the Monasteries." Robinson's Readings, I, 86-93, gives source 
extracts illustrating some phases of the monastic attitude of mind. 

1 The idea, and probably the practice itself, survives in the boy's incanta- 
tion, " Cross my heart and hope to die,"' if his word is questioned. The value 
of a man as a compurgator depended upon his rank ; a noble was worth 
several freemen. The number called for depended also upon the crime. Ac- 
cording to one code, three compurgators of a given rank could free a man 
accused of murdering a serf ; it took seven, if he were accused of killing a 
freeman: and eleven, if a noble. 



§761] TEUTONIC LAW 605 

clear himself by being thrown bound into water : if he sank, 
he was innocent. The pure element, it was believed, would not 
receive a criminal. Or he plunged his arm into boiling water, 
or carried red-hot iron a certain distance, or walked over burn- 
ing plowshares; and if his flesh was uninjured, when exam- 
ined some days later, he was declared innocent.^ All these 
ordeals were under the charge of the clergy, and were pre- 
ceded by sacred exercises. 

Among the nobles, the favorite method came to be the 
trial by combat, — a judicial duel which was prefaced by relig- 
ious ceremouies, and in which God was expected to "show 
the right." 

c. Offences were atoned for by money payments. Warriors were 
too valuable to be lightly sacrificed, and punishment by impris- 
onment was not in keeping with Teutonic custom. Practically 
all crimes had a money penalty, varying from a small amount 
for cutting off the joint of the little finger, to the wer-geld (man- 
money), or payment for a man's life. It is significant that the 
fine for cutting off a man's right arm was about the same as 
for killing him outright. The wer-geld varied with the rank 
of the victim. 

761. New Political Institutions. — The conquest modified the 
political institutions of the conquerors in many ways. Three 
changes call for special attention. 

a. The Teutonic kings became m^ore absolute. (1) They se- 
cured large shares of confiscated land, so that they could reward 
their supporters and build up a strong personal following. 
(2) Their authority grew by custom, since, in the confusion 
of the times, all sorts of matters were necessarily left to their 
decision. (3) The Roman idea of absolute power in the head 



1 For a brief description of these trials, see Emerton, Introduction to the 
Middle Ages, 80-87. Such tests were sometimes made by deputy ; hence our 
phrase, " to go through fire and water " for a friend. The byword, " he is in 
hot water," comes also from these trials; and so, too, the later test of witch- 
craft by throwing suspected old women into a pond, to sink or float. See 
Davis' Readings, II, Nos. 138, 139 (the latter on " ordeals"). 



606 WESTERN EUROPE, 400-800 A.D. [§ 762 

of the state had its influence. From these three factors it came 
to pass that the former warchiefs became real sovereigns. 

b. The old nobility of blood gave way to a new nobility of of- 
fice or service. The higher ranks came in part from the old 
class of " companions " of the king (§ 710), who were now re- 
warded with grants of land and intrusted with important pow- 
ers as rulers (counts and dukes). 

c. TJie popular assemblies decreased in importance as the 
power of the kings and nobles grew. Such assemblies, how- 
ever, did not at this time altogether disappear. They survived 
in England as occasional Folk-moots, and under the Frankish 
kings as Mayfield assemblies. They tended, however, to be- 
come gatherings of nobles and officials. 

762. Summary of Roman and Teutonic Contributions. — The 
great streams of influence that were to make the modern world 
had now come in contact (§4). 

The Roman Empire contributed : — 

Indirectly : 

a. The Greek intellectual and artistic conceptions, together 

with all the material gains that had been preserved 
from the older world. 

b. Christianity and the organization of the church. 
Pirectly : 

c. A universal language — a common medium of learning 

and intercourse for centuries. 

d. Roman law. e. Municipal institutions. 

/. The idea and machinery of centralized administration. 
g. The conception of one, lasting, universal, supreme author- 
ity, to which the civilized world owed obedience. 

The Teutons ^ contributed : — 

a. Themselves (cf. theme sentence on page 570). 

1 These "Teutons " are not the later " Germans," any more than are other 
Teutonic races — Danes. Norse, Swedes — who never lived in Germany. 



§763] ROMAN AND TEUTONIC CONTRIBUTIONS 607 

h. A new sense of the value of the individual man. 

c. Loyalty to a lord, as contrasted with loyalty to the state. 

d. A new chance for democracy — in the popular assemblies 

of different grades, some of which, in England, were to 
develop representative features. 

It is not correct to say that the Teutons gave us representative gov- 
ernment. What they did was to give another chance to develop it. The 
earlier peoples had lost their chances. 

e. A system of growing law. The codification of the Ro- 

man law preserved it, but also crystallized it. Teutonic 
law was crude and unsystematic, but it contained possi- 
bility of growth. The importance of this has been felt 
mainly in the English " Common Law," which is the 
basis of our American legal system. 

763. This mingling of forces has been felt ever since in European 
history. Oriental civilization quickly became uniform; society crystal- 
lized; development ceased (§§ 80-81). European civilization began 
with diversity and freedom. But after some centuries, the Roman Em- 
pire had begun to take on Oriental uniformity : society there, too, had 
crystallized (§ 695), and progress apparently had ceased. The mingling 
of the new elements contributed by the Teutons with the older Roman 
elements has prevented later European society from becoming stagnant. 

That mingling, as the story has shown, took place, not in Germany, 
but in lands we now call England, France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. 
Those peoples to whom we owe these Teutonic contributions left Ger- 
many fourteen hundred years ago, to settle in these other lands and 
finally to become English, French, Spanish, and Italian. " European " 
civilization, which grew up after those migrations, was the civilization 
of Western Europe. In the following chapters we shall see how, in a 
measure, Christianity and conquest from these Western lands began to 
carry the new "European" civilization eastward into the forests of 
"Germany." 



CHAPTER XLVT 

WESTERN EUROPE, 600-7681 

THE FRANKS TO CHARLES MARTEL 

764. Neustria and Austrasia. — There were four great sec- 
tions of the Frankish state, — Burgundy and Aquitaine in the 
south, and the East Franks and West Franks {Austrasia and 
Neustria) in the north. The first two were mainly Roman in 
blood; the last two were largely German. This was true 
especially of Austrasia. That district contained the old home 
of the Frankish race, and much of it had been little affected by 
Roman influences. Keustria, however, contained the early con- 
quests of Clovis and his imperial capital, and it held a certain 
prestige over all the rest. 

The family contests among the rulers of the sub-kingdoms 
(§ 743) finally became a struggle for supremacy between these 
two states, Neustria and Austrasia. It was plain that south 
Gaul must fall to the victor. 

765. The Mayors of the Palace. — The later Merovingian 
kings earned the name of "Do-nothings.^^ Real power was 
exercised in each sub-kingdom by a mayor of the palace. 
Originally this officer was a chief domestic, the head of the 
royal household; but, one by one, he had withdrawn all the 
powers of government from the indolent kings. At first the 
office of mayor was filled by the king's appointment. As it 
grew more important, the nobles sometimes claimed the 
right to elect the holder ; aiid mi Austrasia the position finally 
became hereditary. Once a year, the long-haired king himself 
was carried forth in stately procession on his ox-cart, to be 

1 Review § 744. 



•s o a i 

^ o ; < 




§767] THE FRANKS TO CHARLES MARTEL 609 

shown to the Assembly of the Mayfield. The rest of the time 
he lived, on some obscure estate, in indolence and swinish 
pleasures that brought him to an early grave.^ 

766. Pippin of Heristal. — Much of the seventh century was 
filled with anarchy and civil war. The Frankish state seemed 
about to fall to pieces. Indeed, Bavaria and Thuringia (purely 
German) and Aquitaine (the most purely Roman province) 
did break away into states practically independent, under their 
native dukes. 

But finally, at the battle of Testry (687 a.d.), the Austrasians, 
under their mayor, Pippin of Heristal, established their su- 
premacy over the West Franks. Austrasia at this moment 
had no separate king, and Pippin might now have set up 
an independent kingdom there ; but instead he chose wisely 
to rule both kingdoms as mayor of Neustria, appointing a 
trusted friend mayor of Austrasia. 

In appearance, Austrasia remained the less dignified state, 
but really it had given to the realm of the Franks a new 
line of rulers and a new infusion of German blood. Testry 
stands for a second Teutonic conquest of the more Romanized part 
of the Frankish state, and for a reunion of the two halves of 
the empire. Some of the great border dukedoms still remained 
almost independent; but Pippin is rightly regarded as the sec- 
ond founder of the Empire of the Franks. 

767. Charles Martel, Sole Mayor. — Pippin's son, Charles, 
went farther. He concentrated in his single person the offices 
of mayor of Austrasia, of Neustria, and of Burgundy, and 
brought back to subjection the great dukedoms of Bavaria and 
Thuringia. He established firm order, too, among the unruly 
chiefs of the German frontier, and partially restored Frankish 
authority over Aquitaine, which was now making a gallant 
fight for independence. 

The crushing blows Charles dealt his rivals in these struggles 
won him the title of the Hammer (Martel), which he was soon 

I Read Hodgkin's Charles the Great, 13. 



610 POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-768 [§768 

to justify in a more critical conflict that saved Europe from 
Mohammedanism (§ 773). Except for Pippin and Martel, there 
would have been no Christian power able to ivithstand the Arab 
onslaught. The victory of Testry and the pounding by the 
"Hammer of the Franks" came none too soon. 

For Further Reading. — Da,y\s' Headings, II, No. 134; Hodgkin's 
Charles the Great, 8-45. 

THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIL 

768. Arabia before Mohammed. — About a century after Clovis 
built up the empire of the Franks, a better man, out of less 
promising materials, created a mighty power in Arabia, — a 
region until then beyond the pale of history. This new power 
was destined, within the time spanned by one human life, to 
win Persia from the Zoroastrians, Asia and Africa from the 
Greek Empire, Spain from the Goths, and to contest the rest of 
Western Europe with the Franks. Checked in this last attempt, 
it still maintained itself in Spain for eight hundred years. In 
the fourteenth century it won Eastern Europe, whence, corrupt 
and decayed, it is only now being driven out.^ 

The best of the Arabian tribes were related to the Jews and 
the old Assyrians, but on the whole the peninsula contained 
a mongrel population. A few tribes near the Red Sea had 
acquired some mechanical arts and some wealth, but the 
greater number were poor and ignorant. All were weak, dis- 
united, and idolatrous. The inspiring force that was to lift 
them to a higher life, and fuse them into a world-conquering 
nation, was the fiery enthusiasm of Mohammed. 

769. Mohammed, to the Hegira. — This remarkable man never 
learned to read, but his speech was ready and forceful, and 
his manner pleasing and commanding. His youth had been 
modest, serious, and truthful, so that he had earned the sur- 
name of the Faithful. At twenty-five he became wealthy by 
marriage with his employer, the good widow Kadijah; and 

1 This passage is written during the Balkan War of 1913. 



§770] THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIL 611 

until forty he continued to live the life of an influential, 
respected merchant. 

Mohammed had always been subject, however, to occasional 
periods of religious ecstasy ; and now, upon a time as he 
watched and prayed in the desert, a wondrous vision revealed 
to him (he said) a higher religion, and enjoined upon him the 
mission of preaching it to his people. At first, Mohammed 
seems to have feared that this vision was a subtle temptation 
of the devil ; but Kadijah convinced him that it came truly 
from heaven, and he entered upon his mighty task. 

The better features of the new religion were drawn from 
Jewish and Christian sources, with which the merchant had 
become somewhat acquainted in his travels. Indeed, Moham- 
med recognized Abraham, Moses, and Christ as true prophets, 
but claimed that he was to supersede them. His precepts were 
embodied in the sacred book of the Koran. The two essential 
elements of his religious teaching were belief in one God 
{Allah) and submission (Islam) to His will as revealed by His 
final prophet, Mohammed. 

Mohammed's closest intimates accepted him at once ; but be- 
yond them, in the first twelve years of his preaching, he made 
few converts. Especially were his claims jeered by his towns- 
folk of Mecca, the chief city of Arabia. The priests of the 
old religion roused the people there against him, and finally he 
barely escaped with life from his home. 

770. From the Hegira to the Death of Mohammed, 622-632 
A.D. — This flight of the prophet from Mecca is the Hegira, 
the point from which the Mohammedan world reckons time 
as Christendom does from the birth of Christ. The first year 
of the Mohammedan era corresponds to our year 622 a.d. 

From this event dates a change in Mohammed's policy. Like 
his enemies, he also took up the sword. Jle now made converts 
rapidly, and soon captured Mecca, which became the sacred 
city of the faith. His fierce warriors were almost irresistible. 
They were inspired by religious devotion. They felt sure that 
to every man there was an appointed time of death which he 



612 POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-768 [§770 

could neither delay nor hasten ; and this high fatalism conquered 
fear. Indeed they rejoiced in death in battle, as the surest 
admission to the joys of Paradise. 

"The sword," said Mohammed, " is the key of heaven. A drop oi 
blood shed in the cause of God is of more avail than two months of fast- 
ing and prayer ; whoso falls in battle, all his sins are forgiven ; at the 
day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion and odorif- 
erous as musk." 

At the same time, they were comparatively mild in victory. 
Pagans, it is true, had to choose between the new teaching 
and death; but Jews and Christians were allowed to keep 
their faith on payment of tribute. 

Mohammed was not only prophet, hut Mng — supreme in all 
matters civil, military, and religious. This character de- 
scended to the Caliphs who followed him^ and has marked 
the chief rulers of the Mohammedan world ever since. Mo- 
hammed has been vehemently accused of using fraud and de- 
ceit to advance his cause. To ascertain the exact truth of 
the matter is impossible. In the stress of conflict, and under 
the temptation of power, his character no doubt suffered some 
decline. On the whole, however, he seems to have been 
earnest and sincere, though self-deluded. Certainly his rules 
restrained vice, and set up higher standards of right than 
had ever been presented to his people. The religious en- 
thusiasm he inspired created a mighty nation of devoted 
courage and strict morals, and, finally, of noble culture. 

Just before his death, he sent ambassadors to demand the submission 
of the two great powers in the East, — the Greek Empire and Persia. 
According to the story, the Persian ruler answered the messenger, natu- 
rally enough : " Who are you to attack an empire ? You, of all peoples 
the poorest, most disunited, most ignorant ! " " What you say," replied 
the Arabian, " was true. But now we are a new people. God has raised 
up among us a man. His prophet ; and his religion has enlightened our 
minds, extinguished our hatreds, and made us a society of brothers." 

1 Caliph means " successor " of the Prophet. 



§772] 



THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIL 



613 



771. The Ninety Years of Conquest. — Mohammed lived only- 
ten years after the Hegira, and his own sway nowhere reached 
beyond Arabia. Eighty years after his death, his followers 
stood victorious upon the Oxus, the Indus, the Black Sea, the 
Atlantic.^ All the Asiatic empire of Alexander had fallen to 
them ; all North Africa, besides ; and already, drawing together 




The Mosque of Omar — a famous Mohammedan temple at Jerusalem on the 
site of the Temple of Solomon. Present condition. 

the sweeping horns of its mighty crescent-form, this new 
power was trying to enter Europe from both east and west 
— by the narrow straits of the Hellespont and of Gibraltar. 

772. Repulse at Constantinople. — The preservation of Europe 
from the first attacks lay with the Greek Empire. After 
Justinian, that state had fallen again to decay, and, for a 
time, had seemed in danger of annihilation by Slavs from 
Europe and Persians from Asia. Now the Arabs conquered 

^Most of the wide realm so bounded — including the great historic peoples 
of the Iran plateau and of the Nile and Euphrates valleys — still belongs to 
the Mohammedan faith. 



614 



POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-768 



[§773 



Persia, taking its ancient place as the champion of the Orient. 
They overran Syria and Asia Minor, also ; and, in 672, they 
besieged Constantinople itself. Their victory at this time 
(before the battle of Testry) would have left all Europe open 
to their triumphal march; but the heroism and generalship 
of Gonstayitine IV saved the Western world. 

Happily, in the twenty years' anarchy that followed this 
emperor's death, the Saracens made no determined effort. In 
717, they returned to the attack; but a new and vigorous ruler 
had just come to the throne at Constantinople. This was Leo 
the Isaurian, who was to begin another glorious line of Greek 
emperors. Leo had only five months after his accession in 
which to restore order and to prepare for the terrific onset of 
the Mohammedans ; but once more the Asiatics were beaten 
back — after a twelve months' siege. TJie most formidable 
menace to Europe wore itself avjay on the walls of the city of 
Constantine. 



Arabian chroniclers themselves say that only thirty thousand survived 
of a host of one hundred and eighty thousand well-appointed warriors who 
began the siege. The Greek authorities made the Saracen numbers some 
three hundred thousand, and " by the time the story reached Western 
Europe these numbers had grown beyond all recognition." 

A chief weapon of the defense was the newly invented Greek fire, which 
was afterward to be used with terrible effect by the Mohammedans them- 
selves. Six centuries later. Western Europe was still ignorant of its secret, 
and an old crusader who first saw it in a night battle described it as 
follows : "Its nature was in this wise, that it rushed forward as large 
round as a cask of verjuice, and the tail of the fire which issued from it 
was as big as a large-sized spear. It made such a noise in coming that 
it seemed as if it were a thunderbolt from heaven, and it looked like a 
dragon flying through the air. It cast such a brilliant light that in the 
camp we could see as clearly as if it were noonday." — Joinville, 8t. 
Louis. 



773. Repulse at Tours. — In 711, however, the Arabs entered 
Spain, and were soon masters of the kingdom, except for a 
few remote mountain fastnesses. Then, crossing the Pyrenees, 
the Mohammedan flood spread over Gaul, even to the Loire. 



§774] THE MOHAMMEDAN PERIL 615 

Now, indeed, it " seemed that the crescent was about to round 
to the full," But the danger united the Frankish state. The 
duke of Aquitaine (who had long led a revolt against Frankish 
supremacy) fled to Charles Martel for aid; and in 732, in the 
plains near Tours, the "Hammer of the Franks" with his 
close array of mailed Austrasian infantry met the Arab host. 
From dawn to dark, on a Saturday in October, the gallant, 
turbaned horsemen of the Saracens hurled themselves in vain 
against that stern wall of iron. That night the surviving 
Arabs stole in silent flight from their camp. They kept some 
hold upon a fringe of Aquitaine for a while, but Gaul was 
saved. 

The battle of Tours, just one hundred years after Moham- 
med's death, is the high-water mark of the Saracen invasion. 
Only a few years afterward, the Mohammedan world, like 
Christendom, split into rival empires. The Caliph of the 
East built, for his capital, Bagdad on the Tigris, the richest 
and greatest city in the world for centuries. The Caliphate of 
the West established its capital at Cordova in Spain. The 
two states were bitter rivals, and, with this disunion, the 
critical danger to Western civilization for the time passed 
away. TJie repulses at Constantinople and at Tours rank with 
Marathon, Salaynis, Metaurus, and Chalons, in the long struggle 
between Asia and Europe. 

774. Later Mohammedanism. — The Arabs quickly adopted 
Greek culture, and, to some degree, extended it. In Persia 
and Spain they developed a noble literature. They had the 
most advanced schools and universities of the Middle Ages. 
From India they brought the "Arabic" notation. Algebra 
and alchemy (chemistry) are Arabic in origin as in name. The 
heavens retain evidence of their studies in a thick sprinkling of 
Arabic names (like Aldeharan), while numerous astronomical 
terms (azimuth, zenith, nadir, etc.) bear similar testimony. In 
material civilization, — in methods of agriculture, in growth of 
new varieties of fruits and flowers, in metal work, in manu- 
factures of cloths (muslins from Mosul, damasks from Damas- 



616 



POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-768 



[§774 



cus), — they infinitely surpassed Europe for four hundred 
years. 

On the whole, however, the Arabs showed little real creative 
power; and at a later time political leadership among the 
Mohammedans fell to races like the Turks,^ much less capable 
of culture. Moreover, Mohammedanism sanctioned polygamy 
and slavery ; ^ it left no chance for the rise of woman ; and, 




The Damascus Gate at Jerusalem — part of the Mohammedan wall about 
the city. The "minarets" on the battlements and the "pointed arch" 
are characteristic of Saracenic architecture. 

since the Prophet's teachings were final, it crystallized into a 
changeless system, opposed to all improvement. Thus it was 
doomed to decay. At its best, Mohammedan civilization was 



1 The term Saracen, sometimes applied to any Mohammedan power, be- 
longs strictly to the Arabs. In North Africa the Arabs mingled with the Ber- 
bers of Mauritania, and the race became known as Moors (afterward dom- 
inant in Spain). The Turks, who now for almost a thousand years have 
been the leading Mohammedan people, come in later from Northern Asia and 
are allied to the Tartars. 

2 These evils were among those which Mohammed found existing about 
him and which he accepted. 



1775] THE PAPACY 61? 

marked by an Oriental character. It was despotic, uniform, 
stagnant, — sure to be outrun finally by the Western world, 
which was ruder at first, but more progressive. 

For Further Reading. — Davis' Beadings, II, Nos. 140-143— ten 
pages. 

THE PAPACY 
A. Ecclesiastical Headship 

775. The " Petrine Supremacy." — In the fourth and fifth 
centuries the Christian church was divided between the great 
patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, 
and Eome (§ 682). No one of these bishops had been able to 
establish authority over all Christendom, but claim to such 
supremacy had been put forward by the bishop of Eome. 
The claim took this form : Christ had especially intrusted the 
government of his church to Peter; Peter had founded the 
the first church at Rome ; hence the bishops of Rome, as the 
successors of Peter, held spiritual sway over Christendom. 
The Roman Catholic view of the early church holds, indeed, 
that the church was monarchic in organization from the first, 
and that the headship of Rome, in actual practice, dates from 
Peter.i j^^ early as the time of Valentinian III (§ 726), an 
imperial decree commanded that all the church should rec- 
ognize the headship of the pope.^ In the East, however, the 
church did not acquiesce in this decree. The bishop of Con- 
stantinople claimed an equal place. 



1 Scholarly presentations of the Catholic argument, together with collec- 
tions of some of the historical evidence upon which it is based, are given in 
Kenrick's Primacy of the Apostolic See and in Rivington's Roman Primacy. 
Robinson's Readings, I, 62-73, has a good statement with valuable extracts 
from several of the early Fathers ; see especially the argument of Pope Leo 
(pages 69-72). 

2 The name pope (" papa ") was originally only a term of affectionate 
respect ("father") applied to any bishop. It did not become the official 
name of the bishops of Rome until 1085. Special reports : Leo the Great and 
Gregory the Great, 



618 POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-768 [§776 

776. Rome possessed many advantages in history that helped 
to make good her claim, 

a. From early times the bishops of Rome were readily 
allowed a certain precedence in dignity, even by the other pa- 
triarchs, because men inevitably thought of Rome as the world- 
capital. 

b. The Latin half of the Roman Empire, which would most 
naturally turn to Rome for leadership, contained no other 
church founded by an apostle. Nor did it contain any other 
great city, to become a possible rival of Rome. The other 
patriarchs were all east of the Adriatic. 

c. As compared with the East, the West had few heresies. 
This made it easier for a headship, once established, to 
maintain itself. 

d. A long line of remarkable popes, by their moderation and 
statesmanship, helped to confirm the place of Rome as the 
representative of all the West. Not infrequently, indeed, 
they were accepted as arbitrators in the disputes between 
Eastern patriarchs. 

e. The barbarian invasions strengthened the position of the 
pope in at least two ways. (1) The decline of the imperial 
power in the West lessened the danger of interference from 
Constantinople. (2) The churches in Spain and Gaul, in their 
dread of the Arian conquerors, turned to Rome for closer 
guidance. 

/. Rome's missionary labors did much to extend her powers. It 
was through her that the Arian conquerors in the West were 
finally brought to the orthodox doctrine, and that the pagans 
in Teutonic England and in Germany were converted to Chris- 
tianity. To these last, in particular, Rome was a mother 
church, to be obeyed implicitly.^ 

777. Rome freed from Eastern Rivals. — The claims of Rome, 
however, carried little weight in the East ; and, until about 700, 
to many men of the West, her bishop appeared only one (though 

1 Special report : the life and labors of Boniface, " Apostle to the Ger^ 
mans." See especially Robinson's Readings, I, 105-111. 



§778] THE PAPACY 619 

the most loved and respected one) among five great patriarchs. 
But the eighth century eliminated the other four patriarchs, so far 
as Western Christendom loas concerned. In quick succession, 
Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch fell to the Saracens ; and, 
soon afterward, remaining Christendom split into rival Latin 
and Greek churches, grouped respectively around Rome and 
Constantinople. 

778. This *' Great Schism," like the division of the Roman 
Empire into East and West, followed the lines of partition be- 
tween the Latin and Greek cultures (§ 475). Political differences 
of East and West made the split easy ; but the occasion for 
actual separation was a religious dispute over the use of images 
in worship. 

This is known as the " iconoclast " (image-breaking) ques- 
tion. A small but influential party in the Greek Empire de- 
sired to abolish the use of images, which, they felt, the ignorant 
were apt to degrade from symbols into idols. The great re- 
forming emperor, Leo the Isaurlan (717-741), who had just 
saved what was left of Christendom from the Saracens (§ 772), 
put himself at the head of the movement, with all his despotic 
power. Finally, he ordered all images removed from the 
churches.^ The West believed in their use as' valuable aids to 
worship ; and the pope forbade obedience to the order of the 
emperor. The result was the separation of Christendom into 
two halves, never since united. 

Thus, Rome was left the unquestioned head of the Latin church. 
Other conditions, which we are now to trace, raised this head- 
ship into a real monarchy, temporal as well as spiritual, such as 
was never attained in the Greek church, where the patriarchs 
of Constantinople were overshadowed by the imperial will. 



1 In the East, Leo and his successors were temporarily successful. The 
monks and populace resisted them, however ; and, before the year 800, the 
image-users regained the throne in the person of the Empress Irene. Mean- 
time the question had divided Christendom. The churches of Greece and 
Russia and the other Slav states of Southeastern Europe still belong to the 
Greek communion. 



620 POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-7fi8 [§779 

B. The Pope becomes a Temporal Sovereign 

779. The Pope as a Civil Officer of the Greek Emperor.^ 

While the Roman bishops were extending this spiritual rule 
over all the West, they were also becoming independent terrir- 
poral princes over a small state in Italy. 

This process was assisted by the Lombard invasion. In the 
break-up of Italy (§ 738), the imperial governor (exarch) at 
Ravenna was cut off from Rome and the strip of territory 
about it that still belonged to the Empire (map after page 622). 
From the time of Constantine, all bishops had held considerable 
civil authority. This new condition left the bishop of Rome 
the chief lieutenant of the Empire in his isolated district; and 
the difficulty of communication with the East made him in 
practice almost an independent sovereign. At the same time, 
as spiritual head of Christendom, the pope called, in some 
matters, for submission from the emperor himself. 

780. Popes and Emperors. — The emperors did not permit this 
papal independence without a struggle. One pope was dragged 
from the altar to a dungeon ; another died a lonely exile in the 
Crimea; and only a threatened revolt in Italy saved another 
from a like fate in 701. But more and more the Roman popu- 
lation of Italy rallied round its great bishop against the dis- 
liked Greek power. When the Emperor Leo the Isaurian 
tried to extend imperial taxation to Italy, Pope Gregory 
sanctioned resistance. The imperial decree regarding images, 
we have noted, met with like reception. Plans were discussed 
in Italy for setting up a new emperor in Rome, or for a con- 
federation of the peninsula under the pope. In 730 and 731, 
as the dispute over images grew violent, Leo was excommuni- 
cated by church councils, which had been summoned for the 
purpose by Popes Gregory II and Gregory III. Leo sent a fleet 
and army to seize the pope and subdue Italy ; but a storm 
wrecked the expedition. 

Until these events the popes, though elected by the clergy 
and people of Rome, had been "confirmed" in their office, 



§782] THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY 621 

like other bishops, by the emperor. But thereafter Roman 
bishops assumed office without sanction from the emperors. 
Fifty years later, Pope Hadrian made the political separation 
more apparent by ceasing to date events by the reigns of the 
emperors. Instead, he called a certain day " December 1, of 
the year 781 in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and 
Redeemer," and so began our method of counting time.^ 

781. The Popes and the Lombards. — The new papal sov- 
ereignty was seriously threatened by the Lombards. The 
Lombard king Aistulf had seized the Exarchate of Ravenna 
in the north, and was bent upon seizing Rome also. Had he 
succeeded, Italy would have become one state with a united 
nation. The popes appealed to the Franks for aid. The 
great Frankish mayors had need of papal sanction for their 
plans just then, and so a bargain was struck (§ 782). 

For Further Reading. — Davis' Beadings, II, No. 144. 

THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY 
(From Charles the Hammer to Charles the Great) 

782. The Carolingians^ and the Popes. — Shortly after the 
victory at Tours, the "Do-nothing" king died. Charles 
Martel did not venture to take the title of king, hut neither did 
he place any Merovingian upon the throne. He continued to 
rule, in his capacity as Mayor of the Palace, without any king 
at all. Before his death he secured the consent of the nobles 
to the division of his office between his sons Karlmann and 
Pippi7i. 

These young Mayors, less secure at first than their victori- 
ous father, crowned a Merovingian prince, in whose name they 
governed, like their predecessors. Their first work was to 
continue the task of their father and grandfather in restoring 
authority over Aquitaine and Bavaria. Then Karlmann re- 

1 The year should have been called 785 or perhaps 788 ; cf . § 652, note. 

2 For this name, see § 786, note. The student may prepare for this topic 
and for the following chapter by rereading the earlier history of the Franks- 



622 POLITICAL HISTORY, 600-768 [§783 

tired to a monastery, — as various other princes, English and 
Lombard, did in this age, — and Pippin began to think ot 
taking to himself the name and dignity, as well as the labors, 
of royalty. 

He felt, however, the need of powerful sanction ; and, in 
750, he sent an embassy to the pope to ask whether this was 
" a good state of things in regard to the kings of the Franks." 
The pope, who needed Pippin's aid against Lombard encroach- 
ment, replied, ^^It seems better that he who has the power 
should be king rather than he who is falsely called so." 
Thereupon the last Merovingian was sent to a monastery and 
Pippin assumed the crown. (Davis' Readings, II, No. 145.) 

783. Pippin saves and enlarges the Temporal Power of the 
Popes. — This brings us back to the story in Italy (§ 781). 
Shortly before the death of Martel, the Lombard king be- 
sieged the pope in Rome. The pope sent pressing requests 
to the Frankish ruler for aid. Since the time of Clovis, 
the Franks had kept up friendly relations with the Roman 
bishops, but Martel would not heed this summons. The 
Lombards were his allies against the Arabs, and his hands 
were full at home. 

Pippin, however, owed more to the papacy. Therefore, when 
the Lombards attacked Rome again (soon after Pippin^s coro- 
nation), Pope Stephen set out in person to ask aid at the 
Frankish court. During this visit he himself re-consecrated 
Pippin king of the Franks. On his part. Pippin made two 
great expeditions into Italy, winning easy victories over the 
Lombards. The second time (756 a.d.) he reduced Lombardy 
to a tributary kingdom, and gave to the pope the territory that 
the Lombards had recently seized from the Exarchate of Ravenna. 

784. This '' Donation of Pippin " created the principality 
of the Papal States, — a strip of territory reaching across 
Italy from Rome to Ravenna.^ The exact terms of Pippin's 

1 This papal kingdom lasted until 1870, when its last f ragmfint was united 
to the new-born kingdom of Italy. Some Catholics hope still for its restora- 
tion. They believe that the pope cannot be free to direct kingdoms and 



§784] THE FRANKS AND THE PAPACY 623 

grant are not known. Some writers hold that the pope was 
intended to be wholly sovereign in this territory. Others 
maintain that Pippin stepped into the place of the Greek 
emperor, and simply intrusted to his lieutenant, the pope, 
somewhat larger domains. 

Possibly, at the moment, neither party had any complete 
theory. In practice, the Frankish kings and the popes long 
remained close friends, and it was not until much later (when 
disputes arose) that a theory of the situation was needed. 
When that time came, however, the absence of clear definition 
of powers in this grant was to entangle well-meaning men 
on opposite sides in hopeless quarrels for centuries. The 
greatest of the popes held to the first of the two views ; the 
greatest of the successors of Pippin, to the second. The papal 
view at length prevailed. 

rulers in moral questions, unless he is independent politically. This he can 
be, only if he is himself a sovereign prince. No doubt some feeling of this 
kind began very early to inspire the popes in their march toward kingship. 



CHAPTER XLVIl 

THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE 

THE STORY 

785. Charlemagne the Man. — In 768, Pippin, king of the 
Franks, was succeeded by his son Karl. This prince is known 
in history as Charlemagne, or Charles the Great (Carolus 
Magnus).^ He was one of the most remarkable men that ever 
lived, and his work has profoundly influenced all later history. 
His friend and secretary, Einhard, describes him as a full- 
blooded German, — an Austrasian Frank, — with yellow hair, 
fair skin, and large, keen, blue eyes. He was unusually tall, but 
exceedingly well proportioned and graceful, so that his great 
height did not at first strike the observer. His appearance 
was always manly and stately, and his countenance commonly 
was open and cheerful; but, when roused to anger, his eyes 
blazed with a fire that few men cared to stand before. 

Riding, hunting, and swimming were his favorite sports, but 
he delighted in all forms of bodily exercise, and through most 
of his life he was amazingly strong and active. He was 
simple in habits, and very temperate in eating and drinking. 
He was fond of the old German customs, and usually wore the 
ordinary dress of a Prankish noble, with sword at his side and 
a blue cloak flung over his shoulders ; but he was also fond 
of the Roman culture, and strove to preserve and extend it 
among his people. 



1 The French form " Charlemagne " has won general acceptance, but the 
student must not think of Charles (Karl) as a Frenchman, or even as " king 
of France." He was " king of the Franks," and in history he was the prede- 
cessor of the later German kings rather than of French kings. 

624 



§787] EXPANSION OF TEUTONIC CIVILIZATION 625 




Silver Coin of Charlemagne, 

The obverse side shows plainly the Latin form 
of his name. 



He spoke readily in Latin as, well as in his native German ; 
and he understood Greek when it was spoken. Late in life he 
learned to write, but 
was never able to do 
much more than sign 
his name. For the 
times, however, he was 
an educated man. At 
table, he liked to have 
some one read to him, 
and he was particu- 
larly fond of history. 
He called scholarly 
men about him from distant countries and delighted in their 
conversation, and he did much to encourage learning. After 
his death, legend magnified and mystified his fame, until he 
became the great hero of medieval story.^ 

786. The Frankish state at the accession of Charlemagne had 
much the same area as in the time of the sons of Clovis; but 
meantime it had been more thoroughly united and had been 
absorbing more of the old Roman culture, so that it was now 
ready to advance once more. 

The realm was still in peril, it is true, from Mohammedan- 
ism on one side, and, yet more, from barbarism on the other. 
The first Carolingians ^ — the two Pippins and the Ham- 
mer — had checked the invasion. Now, under this vigorous 
new prince, the Franks took the aggressive and rolled back 
the peril on both sides. 

787. Wars of Charlemagne. — This long reign of nearly fifty 
years (768-814) was filled with ceaseless border warfare, 
oftentimes two or more great campaigns to a season. At first 
glimpse, therefore, Charlemagne stands forth a warlike figure, 



1 Baldwin's Story of Roland gives some legends of Charlemagne's court. 
Davis' Readings, II, No. 146, gives Einhard's description. 

2 This name (from Karl, Carolus) is applied to all the rulers of this house 
from the time of its founder, Pippin of Heristal. 



626 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE [§788 

like Caesar and Alexander. Like them he extended by arms 
the area of civilized life. But though he planned campaigns, 
he rarely took charge of them, and his warfare has little that is 
striking or romantic. It consisted generally in sending over- 
whelming forces into the enemy's country to besiege its strong 
holds and waste its fieids. He warred not for glory or gain, 
but to crush threatening perils before they should become too 
strong. Charles was not chiefly fighter or general, but rather 
statesman and ruler. 

788. The Winning of the Saxon Lands, to the Elbe, 772-804. — 
The most desperate struggle was with the heathen Saxons, who 
were threatening to treat the Frankish state as small bands 
of them had treated Britain some three centuries before. 
That fierce people still held the wilderness between the Rhine 
and the Elbe, near the North Sea. Protected by their 
marshes and trackless forests, these heathen kept up the con- 
test against all the power of Charlemagne for more than thirty 
years. Repeatedly they were vanquished and baptized, — for 
Charles forced the tribes that submitted to accept Christianity 
on pain of death ; but nine times, after such submission, they 
rebelled, massacring Frankish garrisons and returning to 
heathen freedom, — to their human sacrifices and the eating of 
the bodies of witches. 

Charles's methods grew stern and cruel. The greatest blot 
on his fame is the "massacre at Verden," where forty-five 
hundred leaders of rebellion, who had been given up ^at 
his demand, were put to death. The embers of revolt still 
flamed out, however, and finally Charles transported whole 
Saxon tribes into Gaul, giving their homes to Frankish 
pioneers and garrisons. 

Whatever we think of the methods, these wars were the 
most fruitful of the century. The long pounding of thiHy 
years laid the foundation for modern Germany. Charlemagne 
completed the work that Caesar and Augustus began eight 
centuries before. Now that the Roman world had been Ger- 
manized, it was time for Germany to be Romanized. Civile 



§790] UNION OF THE CIVILIZED TEUTONS 627 

zation and Christianity were extended from the Rhine to the 
Elbe. The district was planted with churches and monas- 
teries. Around them, towns grew up, so that these foundations 
proved more powerful than any army in holding the Saxon 
lands to the Frankish state. The Saxon campaigns of Charle- 
magne began the armed colonization of the heathen East by the 
civilized Germans, — a movement which was to become one of 
the great marks of the later Middle Ages. 

789. Spain, Italy, Bavaria. — Other foes engaged the atten- 
tion the great king would have preferred to give to reconstruc- 
tion. The Saracens were easily thrust back to the Ebro, so 
that a strip of north Spain became a Frankish mark.^ The last 
vassal Lombard king, Desiderius, quarreled with the pope. 
After fruitless negotiation, Charles marched into Italy, con- 
firmed Pippin's grant to the pope, sent Desiderius to a 
monastery, and crowned himself king of the Lombards, at Pa via, 
with the ancient iron crown of Lombardy. Bavaria, always 
uncertain in its allegiance (§ 766), rebelled. Charlemagne 
subdued it thoroughly, sending its duke into a monastery and 
incorporating it into the Frankish state.^ 

790. Union of the German People. — Thus, Visigoth, Lombard, 
Burgund, Frank, Bavarian, Allemand, Saxon, — all the surviving 
Germanic peoples, except those in the Scandinavian peninsula 
and in Britain, — were united into one Christian Romano- 
Teutonic state.^ This seems to have been the aim of 
Charlemagne. More than this he did not wish. He might easily 

1 The defeat of Charlemagne's rear guard, on the return, by the wild tribes- 
men of the Pyrenees, in the pass of Roncesvalles, gave rise to the legend of the 
death of the hero Roland in battle with Saracens there. The details are 
fable, but the Song of Roland was the most famous poem of the early Middle 
Ages. 

2 Note the distinction: Lombardy remained a sepa'-ate kingdom from that 
of the Franks, though the two states had the samf king; Bavaria became 
part of the kingdom of the Franks, with no separate government. 

3 The population was largely Roman still, hnt politically the different parts 
of the state were essentially Teutonic. In all its divisions, — in Italy and 
south Gaul, as in Saxon-land, — the rule, for the n'ost part, was in Teutonic 
hands. 



628 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE [§791 

have seized more of Spain or the provinces of the Greek Empire 
in south Italy. The Empire, indeed, gave him no little provoca- 
tion. But with rare moderation he returned freely some Adriatic 
provinces that had voluntarily submitted to him. For mere 
conquest, such realms would have been vastly more attractive 
than the ble^k Saxon-land, but it seems plain that Charles did 
not wish to incorporate inharmonious elements into his 
German state. 

It is notable also that the small Teutonic states outside his 
realms, — in Denmark and in England, — recognized some 
vague overlordship in the ruler of the Teutonic continent. 

791. Wars against the Slavs. — Beyond the German territory 
there stretched away indefinitely the savage Slavs and Avars, 
who from time to time hurled themselves against the barriers 
of civilization, as in old Roman days. In the closing part of his 
reign, Charlemagne attacked barbarism in its own strongholds. 
These long wars were really defensive in character. The Ger- 
mans had now become the champions of European civilization. 
Gradually the first line of the savage peoples beyond the Elbe 
and Danube (including modern Bohemia and Moravia) was re- 
duced to tributary kingdoms. Charles made no attempt, how- 
ever, really to incorporate these conquests into his German 
state, or to force Christianity upon them. They were intended 
to serve as buffers against their untamed brethren farther east. 

The most famous work of Charlemagne, if not the most use- 
ful, was the reestablishment of the Roman Empire in the West. 
To this we will now direct our attention. 

792. Revival of the " Roman Empire " in the West. — The state 
ruled by Clovis and by Pippin had been not so much a 
kingdom as an empire, in extent and character, comprising, as 
it did, many sub-states and diverse peoples. Charlemagne 
intensified this imperial character, and he ruled also over 
wide realms in north Italy which were not in the Frankish 
state at all. Now he was to strengthen his power by reviving 
the dignity and the magic name of the Roman Empire. He knew 
that the mere " king of the Franks " could never sway the minds 



i 



§795] ROMAN EMPIRE REVIVED IN THE WEST 629 

of Visigoth, Lombard, Bavarian, Saxon, and especially of the 
Roman populations they dwelt among, as could the " Emperor of 
the Romans " ruling from the old world-capital. 

There was already a "Roman Emperor,^' of course, at Con- 
stantinople, whose authority, in theory, extended over all 
Christendom. Just at this time, however, Irene, the empress- 
mother, put out the eyes of her son, Constantine VI, and seized 
the imperial power. To most minds. East and West, it seemed 
monstrous that a woman should pretend to sway the scepter of 
the world, and Charles decided to restore the throne to its an- 
cient capital in the West. 

793. Election and Coronation. — On Christmas day, 800 a.d., 
Charlemagne was at Rome, whither he had been called once 
more to protect the pope from turbulent Italian enemies. Dur- 
ing the Christmas service, while the king knelt in prayer. Pope 
Leo III placed upon his head a gold crown and saluted him as 
Charles Augustus, Emperor of the Romans. The act was ratified 
by the enthusiastic acclaim of the multitude. Once more Rome 
had chosen an Imperator. 

794. Theory of the Empire. — This act of Leo and Charles 
was not a partition of imperial duties, as between Diocletian 
and his colleague, nor a friendly division of territory, as be- 
tween Arcadius and Honorius (§ 680). It was in theory the 
restoration of the seat of the one universal Empire to Rome. 
In fact, however, it created two rival empires, each calling 
itself the Roman Empire, and looking on the other as a 
usurpation. 

Men of that day spoke of Charlemagne as the successor not of Eom- 
alus Augustulus (the last "emperor" in the West, §728), but of Con- 
stantine VI, just deposed at Constantinople. In course of time, to be 
sure, men had to recognize that there were two Empires, as there had 
come to be two branches of the Christian Church ; but to the men of the 
West, their Empire, like their Church, remained the only legitimate one. 

795. Western and Eastern Empires Contrasted. —Neither Empire 
was really Roman. The Eastern grew more and more Oriental, until it 
ended in 1453 ad., when the Turks captured Constantinople. The West- 
em grew more and more Teutonic, until it ended in 1806, before which 



630 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE [§796 

time its rulers had shrunk into little more than dukes of Austria. Both 
Empires continued to stand for civilization as against barbarism. The 
Eastern, however, was henceforth largely passive, and calls for little at- 
tention in European history : the active forces for civilization were found 
in the West. The Eastern Empire warded off from Europe inroads ol 
Asiatic barbarism, and served as a storehouse of the old culture. The 
Western Empire learned from the Eastern some of its civilization, an^ 
extended Christianity and good order in Central Europe. 

796. The Empires of Charlemagne and of Constantine Contrasted 

— The new Western Empire, too, while one in theory with th^ 
old Empire of Augustus and Constantine, differed from it al- 
most as widely as from the Byzantine Empire. 

a. The new Empire was European, and even Teutonic, rathei 
than Mediterranean, both in area and character. Charlemagne 
and his successors had to be crowned in Rome; hut the German 
Rhine, not the Italian Tiber, was the real center of their state. 
Aachen, not Rome, was the real capital of the government. 
Greek and Oriental influences were almost wholly excluded ; 
and Roman ideas, so far as they remained, were worked out by 
rulers of Teutonic blood. 

h. The new Empire arose out of a union of the Papacy and 
the Erankish power. This union began in the coronation and 
the donation of Pippin, and was confirmed by the Christmas- 
day coronation of Charles. In later times the union was to be 
expressed in the name. The Holy Roman Empire. The Empire 
had its spiritual as well as its temporal head. The limits of 
authority between the two were not well defined, and dissen- 
sions were afterward to arise between them. 

797. The Great Powers in 8oo A.D. — Thus at the close of Ancient 
History the world is divided among four Great Powers — the two Christian 
Empires and the two rival Mohammedan Caliphates.^ 

The Christian states were in some sense rivals. Each was bitterly 
hostile to its Mohammedan neighbor, and each in consequence was to 

1 The Caliph Haroun al Raschid at Bagdad, the hero of the Arabian Nights^ 
was Charlemagne's contemporary. In an exchange of courtesies, the Saracen 
sent to the Frankish king a white elephant and a curious water clock that 
struck the hourc. 



40 45 50 55 60 65 



%l 



rOl'oA 




§798] 



SOCIETY ABOUT 800 A.D. 



631 



some degree on friendly terms with the Mohammedan power bordering 
the other. The only one of the four states that was to stand finally fof 
progress was the Western Empire^ with its fringes in the Teutonic states 
of Scandinavia and England. 



SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT 

798. Poverty and Misery. — We must not think that the glory 
and prosperity of the old Empire had been restored. To aa 




THBONK of CHARLKM«.aNB AT AACHEN. 



632 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE [§799 

complisli that was to be the work of centuries more. In 800, 
the West was ignorant and poor. There was much barbarism 
in the most civilized society. Roads had fallen into neglect, 
and there was little communication between one district and 
another. Money was little heard of. Trade hardly existed. 
Almost the only industry was a primitive kind of agricul- 
ture. 

Perhaps this condition is best realized by looking at the 
revenues of Charlemagne himself. Great and powerful as he 
was, he was always pinched for money. There were no taxes, 
as we understand the word, — partly because there was no 
money to pay them with, and little produce. Payment was 
made by service in person. The common freemen paid by 
serving in the ranks in war ; the nobles paid by serving there, 
with their followers, and also by serving, without salary, as of- 
ficers in the administration. The treasury received some fines, 
and it was enriched somewhat by the "gifts" which were 
expected from the wealthy men of the realm ; but its chief 
support came from the produce of the royal farms scattered 
through the kingdom. Charlemagne took the most minute 
care that these lands should be well tilled, and that each 
should pay him every q^^ and vegetable due. For the man- 
agement of his estates he drew up regulations, from which we 
learn much about the conditions of the times. (Davis' Read- 
ings, II, Xo. 149.) 

799. Five features of the government deserve attention, — 
the administration by counts; the watching of the counts by 
the missi dominici; the Icing^s own marvelous activity ; the is- 
suing of capitidaries ; and Mayfields. 

a. Under the Merovingians, large fragments of the king- 
dom fell under the rule of dukes, who became almost inde- 
pendent sovereigns and who usually passed on their authority 
to their sons. Pippin began to replace these hereditary dukes 
with appointed counts, more closely dependent upon the royal 
will. This practice was extended by Charlemagne. 

Except on the frontier, no one count was given a large dis- 



§799] 



GOVERNMENT 



633 



trict; therefore the number of these officers was very great. 
On the frontiers, to watch the outside barbarians, the imperial 
officers were given large territories ('' marks ") and were knowB 




Cathedral of Aachen — the so-called Carolingian part. 

as margraves. To the counts and margraves was intrusted all 
ordinary business of government for their districts. They 
maintained order, administered justice, levied troops, and in 
all ways represented the king to the people. 



634 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE [§799 

h. Like the old dukes, the counts tended to become identi- 
fied with their localities as independent rulers, and to transmit 
their power to their sons. To oppose this tendency directly 
in those times was hardly possible. So, to keep the counts 
in order, Charlemagne introduced a new set of officers known 
as missi dominici ("king's messengers"). The empire was 
divided into districts, each containing the governments of 
several counts, and to each such district each year there was 
sent a pair of these commissioners, to examine the adminis- 
tration and to act, for the year, as the king's self, — over- 
seeing the work of local counts, correcting injustice, holding 
popular assemblies, and reporting all to the king.^ The com- 
missioners were moved from one circuit to another, year after 
year, so that they should not establish too intimate relations 
with one set of counts. Usually, too, the pair of missi were 
made up of one layman and one bishop, so that the two might 
be the more ready to check each other. 

c. This simple system worked wonderfully well in Charle- 
magne's lifetime, largely because of his own marvelous activ- 
ity. Despite the terrible conditions of the roads, and the 
other hardships of travel in those times, the king was con- 
stantly on the move, journeying from end to end of his vast 
dominions and attending unweariedly to its wants. No com- 
mercial traveler of to-day travels more faithfully, and none 
dreams of meeting such hardships. 

d. With the help of his chief advisers, the king drew up 
collections of laws to suit the needs of his people. These 
collections are known as capitularies. 

e. Mayfields. To keep in closer touch with popular feeling 
in all parts of the kingdom, Charlemagne made use of the old 
Teutonic assemblies in fall and spring. All freemen could 
attend and speak. Sometimes, especially when war was to 
be decided upon, this "Mayfield" gathering comprised the 

iCf. § 76. Read Emerton's Introduction, 220, 221, or Adams' Civilization, 
160-162. See also Charlemagne's instructions to the missi, in Robinson's 
Readings, 1, 139-143. 



5 801] PLACE IN HISTORY 635 

bulk of the men of the Frankish nation. At other times it 
was made up only of the great nobles and churchmen. 

To these assemblies the capitularies were read; but the 
assembly was not itself a legislature. Lawmaking ivas in the 
hands of the king. At the most, the assemblies could only 
bring to bear upon him the force of public opinion. 

800. Education. — Attention has been called (§ 785) to 
Charlemagne's interest in learning. The diflB.culties in building 
up a better education were almost beyond our comprehension. 
77iere seemed noplace to begin. Not only the nobles, but even 
many of the better clergy were densely ignorant. The only 
tools to work with were poor. 

Charlemagne did much. He secured more learned men for 
the clergy. He brought about the opening of schools in many 
of the monasteries and at the seats of some of the bishops ; 
and he urged that these schools should not only train the 
clergy but that they should teach all children to read, even 
those of serfs. Some of the schools established or revived at 
this time, as at Tours and Orleans, acquired much fame. For 
teachers, learned men were brought from Italy, where the 
Koman culture best survived. Charlemagne also established 
a famous " School of the Palace " for the young nobles of the 
court ; and the scholar Alcuiyi was induced to come from Eng- 
land to direct it. The emperor himself, when time permitted, 
studied at the tasks of the boys. 

With great zeal, too, he strove to secure a true copying of val- 
uable manuscripts, and especially a correction of errors that had 
crept into the services of the church through careless copying. 

801. The Place of Charlemagne's Empire in History. — In 
the early part of the eighth century there were four great 
forces contending for Western Europe, — the Greek Empire, 
the Saracens, the Franks, and the Papacy. By the year 800, 
the Carolingians had excluded two and had fused the other 
two into the revived Eoman Empire. 

For centuries more, this Eoman Empire was to be one of 
the most important institutions in Europe. Barbarism and 



636 THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE [§802 

anarchy were again to break in, after the death of the great 
Charles; but the imperial idea to which he had given new 
life and new meaning was to be for ages the inspiration of the 
best minds as they strove against the forces of anarchy in 
behalf of order, peace, and progress. 

802. The Place of Charlemagne. — For his lifetime, Charle- 
magne restored order to Europe. It is true he was ahead of 
his age ; and, after his death, his great design in many respects 
broke to pieces. It is true, too, that he built upon the work of 
his father and grandfather. But he towers above them, and 
above all other men from the fifth to the fifteenth century, — 
easily the greatest figure of a thousand years. 

He stands for five great movements. He expanded the area 
of civilization, created one great Romano-Teutonic state, revived 
the Roman Empire in the West for the outward form of this 
state, reorganized the church and civil society, and brought 
about a revival of learning. Looking at this work as a whole, 
we may say he wrought wisely to combine the best elements 
of Roman and of Teutonic society into a new civilization. 
In his Empire the various streams of influence that ive have 
traced in Ancient History were at last fused in one great current, 
— and Modern History was begun. 



For Further Reading. — A good brief treatment of Charlemagne's 
work may be found in Emerton's Introduction, 180-235, o^ in Adams' 
Civilization, 154-169. Einhard's contemporary Life of Charlemagne is 
published in Harper's Half-Hour Series (30 cents). Hodgkins' Charles 
the Great is a readable and valuable little book. 

EXERCISES ON PART VI 

1. Topical and " catchword " reviews : (a) The church (see Part V 
also) ; (6) The Franks , (o) The Empire. 

2. Dates to be added for events subsequent to the Teutonic invasions : 
378, 410, 476, 622, 732, 800. 

What events connected with the invasions can the student locate, in 
order, between 378 and 476 ? What events in the history of the Empire 
between 476 and 732 ? (Similar tests for other periods. ) 

3. Battles, Add to previous lists five battles for the period 378-800. 



APPENDIX 

A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS ON ANCIENT HISTORY FOR 
HIGH SCHOOLS 

Prehistoric Culture 

Clodd, E., Story of Primitive Man. Appleton, New York. $0.35. 

. Story of the Alphabet. Appleton. $1. 

Dodge, R. J., Our Wild Indians. Hartford. $2.50. 

Joly, N., Man before Metals. Appleton. .$1.75. 

Mason, 0. T., Woman''s Share in Primitive Culture. Appleton. $1.75. 

Starr, F. , Some First Steps in Human Progress. Flood and Vincent, 
Meadville, Pa. $1. 

It is not suggested that a school library should own all of the above 
works, until it is well supplied in other directions. But any of them 
will make entertaining reading. For Fiction, on the same period, 
the only good attempt is Stanley Waterloo's Story of Ah. 

Oriental History 

Baikie, James, Story of the Pharaohs (illustrated). Macmillan, New 

York. $2. 
Breasted, J. H. , History of the Ancient Egyptians. Scribner, New York. 
$1.25. 

The same author has a larger, finely illustrated work covering the 
same ground. 

History of Egypt. Scribner, New York. $5. 

This is the most recent and scholarly work in English on Egypt 
(1909). But the smaller work is good ; and Baikie's Story (above) 
is perhaps more readable than either. 
* Davis, William Stearns, Readings in Ancient History. AUyn and 
Bacon, Boston. Two volumes : " Greece and the East " and " Rome 
and the West." Each $1. 

The first volume contains sixty pages of "source material" on 
Oriental history, with valuable introductions. The Beadings (unless 

637 



638 APPENDIX 

bought by each student in the class) should be present in the library 
in multiple copies. See Suggestions for Reading on page 9 of this 
text. 

Hommel, F., Civilization of the East ("Primer"). Macmillan. $0.40. 

Jackson, A. V. W., Zoroaster. Macmillan. $1.50. 

* Myres, J. L., Dawn of History (Home University Series). Holt, New 

York. $0.50. An admirable little book. 
Petrie, W. Flinders, Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt (illustrated). 
McClurg, Chicago. $1.75. 

Valuable for students in industrial courses, but somewhat techni- 
cal. Professor Petrie is the most famous Egyptian explorer of our 
times. 
Sayce, A. H., Assyria: Its Princes, Priests, and People (illustrated). 
Revell, Chicago. $1. 

Babylonians and Assyrians. Revell, Chicago. $1. 

A somewhat later work than the preceding. One of the two is 
well worth while in a high school library. Very readable. 
Winckler, Hugo, Babylonia and Assyria. Scribner. $1.25. 

More recent in scholarship than Sayce, but hardly so readable. 

Civilization in Ancient Crete 

Baikie, James, Sea Kings of Crete (handsomely illustrated). Mac- 
millan. $2. The best single volume on the topic. 

Ha was and Hawes, Crete, the Forerunner of Greece. Harper, New 
York. $0.75. 

Greek History 
Source Material. 

* Davis, William Stearns, Beadings in Ancient History. This work is 

described in the list for Oriental history above. It is particularly 
valuable for Greek history, and should be the first library material 
purchased on that subject. The use of it, however, will certainly 
lead many students to wish to know more of certain ancient authors 
quoted in it ; and the small list below ought to be accessible. 

Aristotle, On the Constitution of Athens ; translated by Kenyon. Mac- 
millan. $1. 

This is the least readable of the books mentioned in this list ; but 
it can be used in parts, under a teacher's direction. 

Herodotus, Rawlinson's translation, edited by Grant ; two volumes ; 
Scribner. $3.60. 



A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS 639 

Macaulay's translation, two volumes. Macmillan. $4.50. 

* Homer'' s Iliad, translated by Lang, Leaf, and Myers. Macmillan. $0.80. 

* Homer's Odyssey, translated by Butcher and Lang. Macmillan. $0.80. 

Translated by Palmer. Houghton. $0.76. 
Plutarch, Lives ; translated by Clough ; Everyman's Library (Button, 

New York) ; three volumes, each $0.75. 
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War. Jowett's translation ; 

Clarendon Press, Oxford ; four volumes. $3.50. Or the same edited 

in one volume and published by Lothrop, Boston. $2.50. 

Everyman's Library ('Button, New York) gives several volumes of 
these classics at cheaper rates. Constant additions are made to the 
Library. Herodotus and Thucydides can be obtained also in less de- 
sirable translations, but much cheaper, in Harper's Classical Library. 

Modern Works. 

* Abbott, E., Pericles (" Heroes"). Putnams, New York. $1.50. 
Bliimner, H., Home Life of the Ancient Greeks (profusely illustrated). 

Cassell, New York. $2. 

(Still valuable ; but if the library is buying a new book on the sub- 
ject, it should get Gulick, below). 

* Bury, J. B., History of Greece to the Death of Alexander. Macmillan. 

$1.90. The best single volume on the whole field. 

* Church, E. J., Trial and Death of Socrates. Macmillan. $L 

A translation of four of Plato's Bialogues touching upon this 
period of Socrates' life. They are also the easiest of Plato's writings 
for young people to understand. It has valuable comments. 

Cox, G. W., Greeks and Persians. Epochs Series. Longmans, New 
York. $1. 

* Cox, G. W., The Athenian Empire. Epochs Series. Longmans. $1. 
Cunningham, W., Western Civilization in its Economic Aspects : Ancient 

Times. Macmillan. $1.25. 
The best work on its special phase. Very full for Greece. 

* Davis, William Stearns, A Day in Old Athens, Allyn and Bacon, 

Boston. $1.25. 

= A Victor of Salamis (noYel) . Macmillan. $1.50. 

Exceedingly vivid presentation of Greek life. 

Gayley, C. M., Classic Myths. Ginn, Boston. $1.50. 

* Grant, A. J., Greece in the Age of Pericles. Scribner. $1, 



640 APPENDIX 

* Gulick, Chas. B., Life of the Ancient Greeks (illustrated). Appleton, 

11.40. 

The best treatment ; preferable to the older one by Bllimner men- 
tioned above. 
Gardiner, E. N., Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals (illustrated). Mac- 
millan. |2.50. 

* Mahaffy, J. P., Alexander's Empire. Putnams, New York. $1.50. 
Old Greek Life (Primer). American Book Co. $0.35. 

Progress of Hellenism in Alexander's Empire. University of Chi- 
cago Press. $1. 

* Wheeler, Benjamin Ide, Alexander the Great (" Heroes"). Putnams. 

$1.50. 

As is said above. Bury is the best single work on Greek history. 
It closes with the death of Alexander. Cox's little volumes in the 
Epochs Series are slightly preferable for the Athenian period ; and 
Wheeler's Alexander is admirable for its period. For the age after 
Alexander, the best book is Mahaffy's Alexander's Empire or his 
Progress of Hellenism. 

Roman History 
Source Material. 

* Davis, William Stearns, Readings in Ancient History^ as for Greek 

History above. 

Munro, D. C, Source Book in Boman History. Heath. |1. 
Tacitus. 2 vols. Macmillan. $2. 

Modern Works. 

* Beesly, A. H., The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla. Epochs Series. Long- 

mans. $1. 

Bradley, H., TTte G^o^^s ("Nations"). Putnams. .$1.50. 
Bury, J. B., The Boman Empire to 180 a.d. (" Student's"). American 
Book Co. $1.50. 

* Capes, W. W., Early Boman Empire. Epochs Series. Longmans. $1. 
Age of the Antonines. Epochs Series. Longmans. $1. 

Carr, The Church and the Empire. Longmans. $0.80. 
Church, A. J., Boman Life in the Days of Cicero. Macmillan. $0.50. 
Church, R. W., Beginning of the Middle Ages. Epochs Series. Long= 
mans. $1. 



A SELECT LIST OF BOOKS 641 

Davis, William Stearns, A Friend of Caesar (fiction) . Macmillan. $1.50. 
Fowler, Warde, Caesar ("Heroes"). Putnams. $1.50. 
Fowler, Social Life in the Age of Cicero. Macmillan. $1.50. 
A useful and readable book. 

* How and Leigh, History of Borne to the Death of Caesar. Longmans. 

$2. 

* Ihne, Wilhelm, Early Borne. Epochs Series. Longmans. $1. 
Inge, W. R., Society in Borne under the Caesars. Scribners. $1.26. 

Johnston, H. W., Private Life of the Bomans. Scott, Foresman & Co. 
Chicago. $1.00. 

Jones, H. S., The Roman Empire. Putnams. $1.50. 
*Felham, H..F., Outlines of Boman History. Putnams. $1.75. 

A single volume covering the whole period to 476 a.d., by a great 
scholar and teacher. 
Pellison, Boman Life in Pliny's Time. New York. $1. 
Preston and Dodge, Private Life of the Bomans. Leach, Boston. $1. 
Smith, R. B., Bome and Carthage. Epochs Series. Lo^mans. $1. 

* Tighe, Ambrose, Development of the Boman Constitution ("Primers"). 

American Book Co. $0.35. 

The Teutonic Period — to 800 a.d. 
Sources. 

* Davis, William Stearns, Beadings, as for Greece and Rome, above. 
Robinson, H., Beadings in European History, Vol. I. Ginn. $1.60. 

Modern Works. 

Church, A. J., The Count of the Saxo.i Shore (fiction). 
Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages. Ginn. $1.12. 
Hodgkin, T., TTieocZonc ("Heroes"). Putnams. $1.50. 
Charles the Great. Macmillan. $0.75. 

These lists do not contain nearly all the books in these fields which 
may well be found in a large high school library. They represent only 
such volumes as ought to be constantly accessible to a first-year class in 
the study. The starred volumes should he present in multiple copies. 



INDEX 



Pronunciation, except for the more familiar names and terms, is indicated 
by accentuation and division into syllables. As a rule, the simpler diacritical 
marks of Webster's International Dictionary are used. The soft aspirated 
guttural g of the German is represented by g, the guttural ch by ch and the 
French n by n; italics are used to mark silent letters ; ae and oe = e\ ei = l\ 
eu= H; y = i; y = i. In French words with an accent on the final syllable, 
that accent only is marked ; but it should be understood that in such words 
the syllables as a rule receive nearly equal stress. 

The index may be utilized for reviews upon "cross-topics," or topics that 
call for an arrangement different from that of the text. The most important 
subjects for such review are indicated in black italic. 



The references are to sections. 



Aachen (ach'en), 796, a. Map after 
p. 630. 

Abraham, founder of Hebrew race, 58. 

Absolute monarchy, in Egypt, 11; in 
Assyria, 43; character of Oriental, 
80; in Cretan period, 97; modified 
in Homeric Greece, 105; reappears 
in the tyrants, 126 (see Pisistratus) ; 
after Alexander in Graeco-Oriental 
world, 280, 304, note ; in early Rome, 
346, 349 ; of Caesar, 557 ; of Augus- 
tus, 570, 592; of Diocletian and 
the later Empire, 669-671; growth 
toward, in Teutonic states, 761; 
Mohammedan, 774; of Charle- 
magne, 799. 

Ab-ys-sln'i-a, 6; Abyssinians in 
Egypt, 6, 10. Map, p. 16. 

Academy, at Athens, 182. 

Ac-ar-na'ni-a, 195. Map after p. 94. 

Ac'cad, 37, 38. Map after p. 12. 

A-€hae'a, part of Athenian league, 
199. Maps after pp. 94, 98, 198. 

Aehaea, Greece becomes Province 
of, 471. 

A--€haean culture, 98, 100-112 ; eco- 
nomic side of, 108-110; clan and 
tribe, 100-102; government, 105- 
107 ; overthrown by Dorians, 113. 



Achaean League, 296-311; origin, 
300; constitution, 301; first expan- 
sion beyond Achaea, 303; and 
Aratus, 304; and Lydiadas, 305; 
and Athens and Argos, 306; and 
Sparta, 307-310; fall, 311, 471. 

A--€haeans, mythical origin of, 116, b. 
See Achaean culture. 

A--€hae'us, fabled ancestor of Achae- 
ans, 116, b. 

A--€hiries, 110, 112. 

Ac'o-lyte", 681, note. 

A-crop'o-lis, the central hill-fort 
about which grew Greek and Latin 
cities, 103, 333 d. 

Acropolis of Athens, 138, 148, 177; 
in Age of Pericles, 218-219; plan, 
p. 209; view, p. 210; " restoration," 
p. 221. 

Ac'ti-um, 567. Map after p. 94. 

Ad'rl-an-6'ple, battle of, 679, 
Map after p. 544. 

Adriatic Sea, map after p. 132. 

Ae'diles, 396. 

" Ae-ge'an culture," 95 ff. 

Ae-ge'an Sea, 73, 84, 85, d, 95, 
120, 121, 122, 163, 166, 167, 189, 
191, 192, 193, 194, 202, 207, and else- 
where. Maps after pp. 82, 84, 94. 



712. 



114, 
190, 



643 



644 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Ae-gi'na, at war with Athens, 200; 
gains prize of merit at Salamis, 180. 
Map after p. 98. 
Ae-g-os-pot'a-mi, hattle of, 251; 

Conon at, 259. Map after p. 246. 
A-e-mil'i-a'nus, 644, note. 
Ae-ne'as, 544. 
Ae-o'li-ans, 116, h. 
Ae'o-lus, 116, h. 
Aequians (e'kwi-ans), 409. Map, 

p. 305. 
Aeschylus (6s'ki-lus), 222; on Sala- 
mis, 179. 
A-e'ti-us, 722. 
Ae-to'li-an League, 299, 310. Map, 

p. 283. 
Af-g/ian-is-tan', in Persian Empire, 
73 ; and Alexander, 279. Map after 
p. 84. 
Africa, early civilizations in, 6; cir- 
cumnavigation of, 32 ; Phoenician 
sailors on coast of, 34, 5G ; Greek 
colonies in, 122; under Roman 
Empire, 610; Diocese of, 666; 
Vandal kingdom in, 718; recon- 
quered by Justinian, 736; Moham- 
medan conquest, 771. See Egypt, 
Carthage. 
Ag-a-mem'non, king of Mycenae, 

87, 107. 
" Ag-e of Cicero," 625. 
" Age of Pericles," 193-240. 
" Age of Tyrants," 126. 
A-ges-i-la'us, king of Sparta, 258. 
A'gis, reforming king of Sparta, 307. 
Ag'o-ra, in Athens. Map, p. 202. 
Agrarian laws, Solon's, 141, 142; 
Agis' and Cleomones, 307-309; Li- 
cinian, 370, 371; of the Gracchi, 
507-520 ; of Caesar, 558. 
A-grlc'o-la, 584. 

Agriculture, prehistoric selection of 
food plants, 3 c; in Egypt, 17, 18; 
Babylonian, 44, 51; in Homeric 
Greece, 110 ; in Sparta, 129 ; in Age 
of Pericles, 237, 238; early Roman, 
340, 357, 358; Roman, about 200 B.C., 
408, 409; after Punic Wars, 488^90; 
under the Empire, 610, 611; in later 
Empire, 694, 698, 699; revived in 



Italy under Theodoric, 731; prim 
itive, in Empire of Charlemagne, 
798. 

A-grlp'pa, 622. 

A-hii'ra Maz'da, 78. 

Aistulf (is'tulf),781. 

Aix (aks), see Aquae Seztiae. 

Al'ar-ic, 713-715. 

Alba Longa, 337, 339. Map, p. 305. 

Al-cae'us, 155. 

Al'chem-y, 774. 

Al-ci-bi'a-des, 247. 

Alcuin (al'kwin), 800. 

Alemanni (a-la-man'ne) , 678, and 
map, p. 572. 

Alexander Se-ve'rus, 643. 

Alexander the Great, 276-286; 
youth and character, 276; acces- 
sion and restoration of order, 
277; invades Asia as Champion of 
Hellas, 278 ff. ; Persian campaigns, 
278; in the far East, 279; results 
of work, 280 ff . ; significance of, 
286; routes of march, map after 
p. 266. 

Alexandria, name of many Greek 
cities in Asia after Alexander, 280- 
282. Map after p. 266. 

Alexandria in Egypt, founded, 278 ; 
glory of, 293, 312 ff. ; library at, 319; 
and lighthouse, 320. Map after 
p. 266. 

Alexandrian Age, the, 312-327. 

Alexandrian Library, 319. 

Alexandrian Museum, 319. 
Algebra, used by the Saracens, 774. 

Allia, battle of, 375. Map, p. 305. 
"Allies" (socii), the Italian, 391- 
394; after Punic Wars, 497 ; "Social 
War," for citizenship, 526; admitted 
to Roman citizenship, 527. 
Alphabet, growth, 3 e ; marks stage 
of culture, 10; ^erms of, in Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphs, 22; and Phoeni- 
cians, 56; and Cretan writing, 93 
and especially 96 ; late use in Greece, 
87, 115. 
Ambrose, of Milan, 680, 702. 
Am-mi-a'nus, 701, a. 
Am-phlc'ti-on-ies, 119, 121. 



INDEX 



645 



The references are to sections. 



Am-phic'ty-on-lc Leag-ue, the, 119. 
Am-plii-the'a-ter, Etruscan origin 
of sports of, 331; games in, 
see Gladiatorial games; buildings, 
622. 
Ana'ten, statue of, p. 22. 
An-§,b'a-sis, 257. 
An-ac're-on, 146, 155. 
An-ax-ag'o-ras, 225, 227. 
An-ax-i-man'der, 156. 
An-ax-Im'i-nes, 156. 
Ancestor worship, Egypt, 24 ; Baby- 
lonia, 53; Greek, 98, 100, 101; Ro- 
man, 341, 572. 
Ancient History, 4; field of, map 

on p. 3. 
An'cus Mar'ti-us, 335. 
Angles, the, in Britain, 720. Map 

after p. 594. 
Animal worship, 24. 
Anio River, 362. Map, p. 305. 
An-tal'cl-das, Peace of, 260. 
Anthony, Saint, 702. 
Antioch, 312 ; under Roman Empire, 
611 ; patriarchate of, 682 ; captured 
by Mohammedans, 677. Map after 
p. 488. 
An-ti'o^€hus, of Syria, 464, 465. 
Antiochus IV, 467. 
An'to-nines, the, 585-591. 
An-to-ni'nus, Marcus Aurelius, 
589; quotations from Thoughts of, 
638. 
Antoninus, Pius, 588. 
Antonius, Marcus (" Mark An- 
tony"), 563-567. 
Antony, Mark, see Antonius. 
A-pel'les, 314. 
Apennines, the, 326. Map after 

p. 302. 
Aph-ro-di'te, 111. 

A-pol'lo, 100, 111. See Delphic Or- 
acle, Belvidere. 
" Apologies," of the Church 

"Fathers," 651. 
"Apostolical Constitutions," 

quoted, 703. 
Ap'pi-an, 628. 

Appian Way, the, 395. See Roman 
Roads, and map, p. 348. 



Appius Claudius, the decemvir, 362, 

364. 
Appius Claudius, censor, 382, 395, 

399, 402. 
Aquae Sextiae (a'kwae sgx'ti-aeV 

battle of, 524. Map after p. 372. 
A'que-ducts, of Pisistratus, 146; in 
Graeco-Oriental cities, 282 ; in cities 
of Roman Empire, 610. 
Aquitaine (a-kwi-tan'), 764. Map 

after p. 608. 
A-ra'bi-a, 58, 293 ; Arabians in Egypt, 
10, 32; and Egyptian trade, 19; 
modern, in Chaldea, 35; language, 
36. See Mohammedanism. 
Arabic notation, 774. 
A-ra'tuP, general of Achaean League, 
302-31' ; character and services, 
303- ,nmity to Lydiadas, 304; be- 
ivix-j'dX of Corinth, 310. 
Ar-bd la, battle of, 278. Map after 

p. 266. 
Ar-ca'di-a, 261, 265. Map after p. 98. 
Arcadius, 680. 
Arch, Egyptian, 21; Etruscan, 331; 

Roman, 414, 621 ; triumphal, 622. 
Archbishops, 681. 
Ar--ehi-me'des, 320, 446. 
Architecture, in Egypt, 22 ; in Chaldoa 
and Assyria, 52 ; Persian borrowed, 
74; Oriental contrasted with Euro- 
pean, 80; in Greece, orders of, 154; 
in Athens of Pericles, 218-220 ; early 
Roman, 338, 340, 414 ; later Republic, 
411, 484-485; Early Empire, 621- 
622; early Christian, 623. 
Ar'-ehi-trave, in Doric order of archi- 
tecture, 154. 
Ar'-€h6n, at Athens, 134, 135, 144, 

152; king-archon, 134. 
Ar-e-6p'a-gus, 135, 142. 
A'res, 111. [246. 

Ar-gi-nu'sae, 251, note. Map after p. 
Ar-gives, see Argos. 
Ar'go-lis, 91. Map after p. 98. 
Ar'gos, persistence of kingship in, 
124 ; hostile to Sparta, 127 ; crippled 
by Sparta, 161 ; friendly to Persia, 
172 ; allied to Athens against Sparta, 
199; joins League against Sparta, 



646 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



259; joins Achaean League, 305. 

__Maps after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

A'ri-an heresy, 684. 

A-ri-o-vIs'tus, 547. 

Ar-is-tar'^hus, 320. 

Ar-is-ti'des, Athenian leader, 170; 
proposes plan for Delian League, 191. 

Aristocracy, definition, 85 ; return to 
Dorian Greece, 120 ; in Sparta, 128 ; 
in Achaean League, 301 ; in early 
Rome, 344, 347, 356; in later Re- 
public, 397, 400, 401, 484; in Roman 
Empire, 690, 691, 698; among the 
Germans, 709; in new Teutonic 
states, 761. 

Ar-is-toph'a-nes, 148, 221. 

Ar'is-tot-le, quoted on Athenian his- 
tory, 136, 146; place in philosophy, 
315; tutor of Alexander the Great, 
276 ; Natural History of, 285 ; proofs 
of sphericity of the earth, 320. 

Arithmetic, Egyptian, 23; Chaldean, 

_49; Roman, 619. 

A'ri-us, 684. 

Ar-me'ni-a, and Phoenician com- 
merce, 55; a Roman province, 606. 
Map after p. 12, etc. 

Army, Egyptian, 12; Achaean, 113; 
Dorian, 113; Spartan, 130; citizen 
armies based on wealth at Athens, 
137; Theban phalanx, 263; Mace- 
donian, 273; Roman, reformed by 
Servius, 347, 348; under the Re- 
public, 403-406; under Early Em- 
pire, 601-603; agency in unifying 
the Empire socially, 406, 603; re- 
forms of Diocletian, 667; in fourth 
century, 687 ; Teutonic, 709, 710. 

Ar'ri-a, 632. 

Art, prehistoric, 1; Egyptian, 21 
Babylonian, 51, 52; no Hebrew, 67 
Persian, borrowed, 74; Oriental, 80 
Cretan, 96; no Spartan, 130; Greek, 
of 6th century, 154, 157; in age of 
Pericles, 217-222; in Alexandrian 
Age, 312, 314 ; Greek influence on 
Roman, 487; Roman, 484, 487; in 
Augustan Age, 621 ff. 

Ar-tax-erx'es, king of Persia, 257, 
2()0. 



Ar'te-mis, 111. 

Ar-te-mls'i-um, battle of, 176. Map 
after p. 98. 

Asia, see Oriental culture and geog- 
raphy. 

Asia, Province of, 472, 510. 

Asia Minor, Assyrians in, 40 ; under 
Croesus, 70; Persia, 72; Helleniz- 
ing of the coast, 121 ; Persian Wars, 
163-164, 189 ff.; Greek cities be- 
trayed to Persia by Sparta, 250, 260; 
Agesilaus in, 258; Alexander in, 
278 ; Gauls in, 290 ; part of Graeco- 
Oriental world, 287 ff. ; Lycian Con- 
federacy, 301 ; Roman province, 472; 
and Saracens, 772. 

As-pa'si-a, 230. 

Assembly, Homeric folk-moot, 107; 
Spartan, 128; in cities of Delian 
League, 191, 194; Achaean League, 
300, 301. See Athenian, Roman, 
Teutonic, and Mayfield. 

As'sur-Nat'sir-Pal, king of Assyria, 
inscription of, 41. 

As-syr'i-a, 35 ; Semitic, 36; Empire, 
40; fall, 41 ; contribution to govern- 
ment, 40; religion and morality, 
41, 53; society and culture, 44-52; 
cuneiform writing, 47 ; art, 52 ; Ro- 
man province, 606. Maps after pp. 
12, 82, etc., and 488. 

As-tar'te, 57. 

Astrolog-y, Chaldean, 49. 

Astronomy, Egyptian, 23 ; Chaldean, 
49; Greek, 156, 320; Saracenic, 774. 

A'taulf, 715. 

A'ten, 24. 

Ath-an-a' si-US, 684. 

A-th§'ne, 111; statues on the Acrop- 
olis of Athens, 218, 219, 220. 

Athenian Assembly, under Eupatrid 
rule, 135; constitution of classes, 
137 ; after Solon, 142, 6, 144, 145, 149 ; 
after Cleisthenes, 151-152; of Peri- 
cles, 210. 

Athenian colonization, see Cler- 
uchs. 

Athenian " Generals," 152, 209. 

Athenian juries, 211; payment of, 
212. 



INDEX 



647 



The references are to sections. 



Athenian "Leaders of the Peo- 
ple " (demagogues) , 209. 

Athenian oratory, 223. 

Athenian political capacity, 213, 
214, 229. 

Athenian senate, after Solon, 142, a ; 
after Cleisthenes, 152, 210. See 
Areopagus. 

Athenian state pay, 212. 

Athens, legendary founding, 103, 132; 
type of Ionic cities, 120 ; metropolis 
of Ionia, 121 ; oligarchy replaces old 
kingship, 134-137; progress toward 
democracy, to Solon, 137-139; So- 
lon's reforms, 140-143 ; factions, 145 ; 
tyrants, 145-148; under Pisistratus, 
146; Cleisthenes' reforms, 149-153; 
and democracy, 152, 153; leader in 
culture after 600, 146 ff . ; condition at 
Persian attack, 161 ; part in Ionian 
revolt, 164, 165; Persian heralds, 
167; Marathon, 167, 168; from Mar- 
athon to Thermopylae, 169, 170; 
internal factions crushed, 169; a 
naval power, 170 ; at battle of Arte- 
misium, 176 ; abandoned to Persians, 
177; battle of Salamis, 178, 179; re- 
ceives offers from Persians, 181 ; 
building of walls, 184, 185; com- 
merce, 185, 186; proposes League of 
Plataea, 187; glory from Persian 
War, 188 ; assumes leadership of 
Asiatic Greeks, 190 ; Confederacy of 
Delos, 191-194; Athenian Empire, 
195 ff. ; jealousy between Sparta and, 
196; greatest extent, 199; activity, 
200; power, 204; population, 205; 
colonies, 206; revenue, 207; govern- 
ment, 208-211 ; "juries," 211; state 
pay, 212 ; Athenian political ability, 
213, 229; verdict on the empire, 214; 
leaders and parties, 215; Pericles, 
216; intellectual and artistic devel- 
opment, 217-232; theater money, 
222; tribute by Pericles, 229; faults 
in, 230, 231 ; life in Age of Pericles, 
233-240; houses, 233; family, 236; 
industries, 237 ; banquets, 239; edu- 
cation, 240; andPeloponnesian War, 
241-251; plague in, 244; rule of the 



Four Hundred, 249; the "Thirty," 
255; regains freedom, 256; in new 
league against Sparta, 259; and 
Peace of Antalcidas, 260; and Spar- 
tan treachery, 261 ; shelters Theban 
democrats, 262; saves Sparta, 266; 
and Macedon, 272, 274, 277; and 
Achaean League, 305 ; home of phi- 
losophy in Hellenistic Age, 315, 319 ; 
and learning, 312, 319; "ally" of 
Rome, 464; welcomes Mithridates, 
532; intellectual center under Ro- 
man Empire, 619; sacked by Goths, 
648; spared by Alaric, 713. Maps 
after pp. 94, 98, etc., and on pp. 180, 
189, 202. 

A'thos, Mount, 166; canal of, 171. 
Maps after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

At'ti-ca, products, 85; consolidated, 
103, 132. See Athens. Maps after 
pp. 94, 98, and on p. 180. 

Attic comedy, 221. 

At'til-a, 722, 723, 724. 

Augurs, 342, 343. 

Aug-ustan Age, the, 571. 

Au'gus-tlne, Saint, 702. 

Augustus, 569-573, 575, 605. See 
Octavius. 

Augustus, a title for Roman Em- 
perors, 593. 

Aurelian, emperor, 646. 

Au-re'li-us, Marcus, see Antoninus. 

Aus'plc-es, 331, note, 342. 

Aus-tra'si-a, 764, 765. Map after 
p. 608. 

Autun (o-tun') , 620. Map after p. 544. 

Avars, 721, 791. Map after p. 630. 

A'ven-tine, the, map, p. 311. 

Ba'al, 57. 

Babylon, geography, 34, 35; one of 
the early city-states, 38 ; First Em- 
pire of, 39; Second, 42; society and 
culture, 43-53; law and property, 
45 ; special privilege of rich in law, 
46 ; cuneiform script, 47 ; literature, 
48; science, 49; legends of creation 
and deluge, 50; industry and art, 
51-52; religion and morals, 53. 
Maps after pp. 12, 82, 84, etc. 



648 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Bac'tri-an'a, 279. Map after, p. 84. 

Bag'dad, map after p. 630. 

Bal-bi'-nu8, 644, note. 

Baltic Sea, and Phoenicians, 54. 

Banking, in Roman Empire, 614. 

Banquet, place of, in Greek life, 239. 

Barbarian invasions, in Egypt, 10, 31 ; 
in Euphrates lands, 3(5, 38, 41 ; Scyth- 
ians (and Persia), 75; Gauls (and 
Graeco-Oriental world), 290; into 
Italy, 330, 375 ; Cimbri and Teutones, 
523: and Caesar, 547, 548; on fron- 
tiers of Roman Empire, 605, 607; 
from Aurelius to Aurelian, 648; suc- 
cessful in fourth century, 712 ff. 
(see Germans) ; Huns repulsed, 721- 
724; and Charlemagne, 788-791. 

*• Barbarians " (to the Greeks), 116 a. 

Barca, see Hamilcar. 

" Barrack Emperors," 639 ff. 

Barter, trade by, 19, 70. 

Basil, Saint, 702. 

Basilica, 623. 

Bavaria, map after p. 608. 

Bel-i-sa'ri-us, 736. 

Bel'vi-dere', Apollo, 314. 

Benedict, Saint, "rule" of, 759. 

Ben-e-ven'tum, battle of, 381. Map 
after p. 302. 

Beowulf (be'o-wulf or ba'o-wulf), 
song of, 707. 

Berbers, 10. 

Bible, the, translated into Greek (Old 
Testament), 319; translated into 
Latin, 702; into Gothic, 702. 

Bishops, 681. 

Bi-thyn'i-a, map after p. 266. 

Black Sea, and Phoenicians, 55; 
Greek colonies on, 122. Map after 
p. 82. 

Bo-a-di-ce'a, 609. 

Boe-6'tl-a, cities of, and Thebes, 132 ; 
early poets of, 155 ; under Athenian 
control, 199; falls away from 
Athens, 201. See Thebes and 
Plataea. Maps after pp. 94, 
98, etc. 

Bokhara (boch-a'ra), 77. 

Bordeaux (bor-do'), map after p. 586. 

Bras'i-das, 247. 



" Bread and g-ames," 558, 633. 

Bren'nus, 375, note. 

Britain, Phoenician sailors in, 56; 
Caesar in, 547 ; Roman conquest of 
Southern, 578, 584, 606; Hadrian's 
Wall in, 587, 607; diocese of, 666; 
abandoned by Roman Empire, 606, 
720; Teutonic invasions, 720; 
gradual conquest, a Teutonic state, 
745, 746; conversion to Christianity, 
747; political results of conversion, 
748. Map after pp. 488, 544, etc. 

Bronze, explained, 2. 

Bronze culture, in Egypt, 10; in 
Chaldea (see); in Crete, 96; dis- 
placed in Greece by Achaeans, 98, 99. 

Bru'tus, Lucius Junius, first consul 
of Rome, 350, note. 

Brutus, Marcus, the Republican, 561, 
56<j. 

Bulgarians, 721. 

Burgundians, 705 ; in Gaul, 716, 717 ; 
at Chalons, 722; numbers, 752 
Arians, 742; conquered by Clovis 
742. Maps, p. 572 and after p. 594. 

Burgundy, 764. Map after p. 608. 

By'zan-tlne Empire, 734-738. See 
Roimin Empire in the East. 

By-zan'ti-um, 122; a free city in the 
Graeco-Oriental world, 288, 674. 
Map after p. 132. 

Ca'diz (Gades), founded by Phoeni- 
cians, 56. Map after p. 132. 

Cae'li-an Hill, the, 338. Map, p. 311. 

Caesar, Caius Julius, 544; appears 
as leader, 544-547 ; in Gaul, 547, 548 ; 
rupture with Pompey, 549; five 
years' rule, 550-561; hope of sub- 
ject nations, 551; crosses Rubicon, 
553; campaign in Italy, 553; in 
Spain and Greece, 554; in Asia, 
Egypt, Africa, and Spain, 555; con- 
structive work, 556-560; form of 
his monarchy, 557; murder, 561; 
character, 544, 562. 

" Caesar," a title, 593, 663. 

Cal'e-do'ni-a, 584. 

Calendar, Egyptian, 23; Caesar's 
558. 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



649 



Cal-Ig-'u-la, 577. 

Caliphs, 770, note. 

Cai-llc'ra-tes, 218. 

Cam-pa'ni-a, map after p. 302. 

Cain'pusMar'ti-us,413. Map, p. 311. 

Canaan, 60. See Palestine. 

Canal from Nile to Red Sea, 28; 

and Neco, 32 ; restored by Ptolemies, 

293. Map, p 16. 
Can'nae, battle of, 442. Map after 

p. 302. 
Capital, in architecture, 154. 
Cap'i-to-line, the, 338. Map, p. 311. 
Ca-plt'u-la-ries, 799 d. 
Cap-pa do' ci-ans, 77. Map after p. 

84. 
Capri (cap're) , Isle of, map, p. 473. 
Cap'u-a, 443, 450, 558. Map after 

p. 302. 
Car-a-cal'la, 642. 
Ca'ri-ans, 77. Map after p. 84. 
Ca-ri'nus, 647, note. 
Car-o-lin'gl-ans, name explained, 

786, note. 
Carpentry, tools in ancient Crete, 96. 
Carthage, Phoenician colony, 56, 

160 ; and Greeks in Sicily, 160, 181 ; 

held in check by Athenian name, 

204; and Rome, 417^21; Panic 

Wars, 421-429, 431, 436 ff., 459-462; 

rebuilt by Caesar, 558; Vandal 

capital, 718. Map after p. 132. 
Ca'rus, 646, note. 

Cassius (cash'i-us), and Caesar, 561. 
Cassius, Spurius, 362, 373, note. 
Catholic Church, see Church. 
Cat'i-line, 545. 
Cato, Marcus Fortius, 459, 506, 

624. 
Cato the Younger, 543, 555. 
Ca-tul'lua, 625. 

Cau'dine Porks, battle of, 380. 
Cavemen, 1 ; weapons of, 2. 
Celts, 720. 

Censors, at Rome, 368. 
Centralization in government, 

term explained,. 671 and note. 
Centuries, Assembly of, see Roman 

Assembly. 
Ce'reg, 111. 



Cer-y-ne'a, 299. Map after p. 98. 

-Chaer-o-ne'a, battle of, 274. 

-Chal'cis, map after p. 98. 

-Chal-de'a, convenient but not strictly 
proper name for Euphrates district, 
35, note. Map after p. 12. See 
Bah^jlon. 

Chalons (shal-loii'), battle of, 723. 
Map after p. 576. 

ChampoUion (shoh-pol-yoh), 5. 

Charlemagne (sharl'e-man), 785. 
See Empire of Charlemagne. 

Charles Mar-tel', 767. 

Charms, Chaldean, 49. 

-Che 'ops, 21, 27. See Khufu. 

-Cher-so-ne'sus, 169. Map after 
p. 132. 

Chiefs., Council of., Homeric, 106; 
origin of Spartan senate, 128; of 
Athenian Areopagus, 135; Roman, 
346; German, 709, 710. 

China, early civilization, why not 
studied, 4. 

-Chln'vat Bridge, the, 78. 

-Ghi'os, 195. Map after p. 94. 

Christ, birth of, 575, 652; Crucifixion, 
576. 

Christianity, rise, 652 ; extension to 
gentiles, 653; later growth in first 
two centuries, 654; Nero's persecu- 
tion, 654 ; some sources of power, 
655 ; debt to Empire, 656 ; persecu- 
tions of, 657-660; and Constantino, 
675-676; edict of Galerius, 673; of 
Milan, 676; and Theodoslus, 680; 
reaction from victory over Empire, 
686; in "Dark Agec/' 756. See 
Church. 

Chry-sos'tom, John, 702. 

Church, the, organization, 681; unity, 
682 ; growth of creeds, 683, 684 ; per- 
secution of heresies, 684; attitude 
toward pagan learning, 703 ; and " 
the barbarians, 756; schism — Greek, 
and Latin churches, 778. See 
Papacy, Monasticism. 

Cicero, 543, 565, 625. 

Ci-llc'ia, 77. Map after p. 84. 

Cilician pirates, 541. 

CIm'bri, the, 523, 524. 



650 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Ci'mon, 192, 197, 198. 
CIn-cIn-na'tus, 373, note. 
CIn'na, 530, 531. 
CIs-arpine Gaul (Gal'li-a Cis'al- 

pi'na), 326. Map after p. 302. 
Citizenship, Spartan, 129; Athenian, 
150, 151, 256 ; Roman, about 200 B.C., 
383-388 ff . ; attempt to extend to all 
Italy, 517, 527; secured by Italians 
in Social War, 528; and Caesar's 
extensions, 560, 616; later exten- 
sions, 616. 

City-states, in old Egypt, 11; in Eu- 
phrates valley, 37 ; in Phoenicia, 55, 
57; in Hellas, 103 ; the limit of Greek 
political ideals, 104 ; decline and fall, 
268, 275; Roman, see Rome. 

Civilization, and prehistoric contri- 
butions, 3 ; early centers, 6, 7 ; stages 
of (" culture ") , 10 ; characteristics of 
Oriental, 79-81; Oriental and Euro- 
pean (influence of geography), 82-86. 

Civil service, term defined, extent 
at Athens, 212 and note. 

Ci-vi'lis, 609. 

Clan, in Homeric Greece, 100 ff . ; 
in Athens, 149 ff. ; Roman, 345 ; Ger- 
man, 709. 

Claud'i-an, poet, 617. 

Claudius, Emperor, 578. 

Claudius II, 645. 

Cla-zom'e-nae, map after p. 132. 

Cle-om'e-nes, reformer at Sparta, 
308-310. 

Cle'on, Athenian leader, 247. 

Cle-o-pa'tra, 33, 555, 567. 

Cler'uchs, 148, 205, 206. 

Clls'the-nes, 147-153. 

Clo-ac'a Max'i-ma, the, 338. 

Clo-t/iil'da, 741. 

Clovls, 740-742. 

Cni-dus, 259. Map after p. 246. 
■ Col'chis, 56. Map after p. 132. 

Col-i-se'um, 622. 

Col'line Gate, battle of, 533. Map, 
p. 311. 

Cologne (ko-lon'), map after p. 488. 

C6-16'ni, see Serfdom. 

Colonization, Phoenician, 56; Greek, 
U21, 122; New Athenian plan, 148, 



205, 206 ; in Graeco-Oriental world, 
280-282; Roman, 384, 389. 

Column, in Egyptian architecture, 
21 ; Greek, 154. 

Commerce, early routes, 7; Egyptian, 
19; Euphrates states, 38, 51 ; Phoeni- 
cian, 54-56; and invention of coin- 
age, 70 ; early Cretan, 95 ; and Greek 
geography, 85 a ; in Homeric Greece, 
110; Athenian, and Pisistratus, 146; 
growth in Athens, 148, 237; in 
Graeco-Oriental world, 284; Roman, 
about 200 B.C., 408; under Empire, 
612, 613. 

Com-mo'dus, 590. 

"Companions" (German institu- 
tion), 710. 

Com-pur-ga'tion, trial by, 760. 

Co'non, 259. 

Con'stans, 677. 

Constantine the Great, 673 ff. 

Constantino II, 677. 

Constantine IV, 772. 

Constantine VI, 792 

Constantinople, 674, Map after 
p. 544. 

Con-stan'ti-us, 672. 

Constantius II, 677. 

Consular Tribunes, 367. 

Consuls, 350-352. 

Cooking-, in ancient Crete, 96; in 
Greece, 233. 

Cor-cy'ra, 172, 242. Maps after pp. 
94, 98, etc. 

Cor-do'va, map after p. 630. 

C6-rin'na, 155. 

Cor'inth, and Periander, 126; Pan- 
Hellenic Congress at, 172; jealous 
of Athens, 184, 200, 241 ; and Pelo- 
ponnesian War, 241, 242; jealous of 
Sparta, 259; Congress of, under 
Philip, 274; and Achaean Confed- 
eracy, 304, 310 ; destroyed by Rome, 
471 ; rebuilt by Caesar, 558 ; sacked 
by Goths, 713. Maps after pp. 94, 
98, etc. 

Corinthian order of architecture, 
154. 

Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, 507. 
513. 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



651 



Orassus, 538. 

Cretan civilization, 93-96. 

Crit'i-as, 255. 

Cri'to, friend of Socrates, 227. 

Croe'sus, 70, 72, 163. 

Culture (stage of civilization), 10. 

Cu-nax'a, battle of, 257. 

Cil-ne'i-forni script, 47. 

Curia, the Roman, 345. 

Cu'ri-als, 691. 

Curio, and Caesar, 562. 

Curio, Manius, 409. 

Curule officers, 396, 397. 

Cylinder seals, Babylonian, 51. 

Cy'lon, 138. 

Cynic philosophy, 317. 

Cy-nos-ceph'a-lae, battle of, 464. 

Map after p. 372. 
Cy-re'ne, 122. Map after p. 132. 
Cyrus the Great, 72, 163. 
Cyrus the Younger, 257. 

Da'cia, 586, 606. Map after p. 488. 

Damascus, map after p. 12. 

Da-ri'us Cod-o-man'nus, 278. 

Darius the Organizer, 75, 76, 77, 
78. 

*' Dark Ages," the, 749 ff. 

Dates, Table of, to 500 B.C., 158; for 
Greek history, p. 295; Roman and 
Greek, 396-398; Roman, 465, 569; 
Teutonic, 636. 

David, king of the Hebrews, 63, 64. 

Debt, laws about, in Athens, 136, 141. 

Dec'arch-ies, under Spartan protec- 
tion, 253. 

De-c§m'virs, 364. 

De'cius, 644. 

De'dan, 55. 

De/os, Confederacy of, 191-194. 

Delos, plan of house from, and de- 
scription, 233; island of, map after 
p. 94. 

Delphi, 118; repulse of Gauls from, 
290. Maps after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

Delphic Oracle, 118, 174, 177. 

Demes, in Attica, 151. 

De-moc'rI-tus, philosopher, 225. 

Democracy, definition of, 85; germs 
of, in Homeric Greece, 107 ; tyrants 



pave way for, 126 ; Greek conception 
of, 128; Athens a democracy, 142, 
152, 208-214; Athens mother of 
Ionian democracy, 195; attempted 
overthrow in Athens, 249, 255; in 
Greece overthrown by Sparta, 253; 
in Thebes, 268; lack in Achaean 
League, 301 ; in Republican Rome, 
in form, 396-402; among Teutons, 
709. 

De-m6s'the-nes, Athenian general, 
247. 

Demos'thenes, Athenian orator, 223, 
272. 

De-si-de'ri-us, 789. 

Diana, 111. 

Dictator (Roman), 354. 

Dioceses (civil), 665; table of, 666; 
ecclesiastical, 681. 

Di-6-cle'ti-an, 661-671 ; edict regard^ 
ing prices, 693, 698. 

Di-o-do'rus, 626. 

Di-6g'e-neg, the cynic, 317. 

Di-o-ny'si-us, historian, 334, 626. 

Di-o-ny'sus, god of the vintage and 
the drama, 146, 221 ; theater of, at 
Athens, 222, 223. 

Divination, Chaldean, 49; Etruscan, 
331, note; Roman, 342, 343. 

** Do Nothing Kings," 765. 

Domestication of animals, pre- 
historic, 3, b; in Egypt, 18. 

Domitian, 584, 607. 

•' Donation of Pippin," 783, 784. 

Do'ri-ans, 113; and lonians, 120; 
mythical origin of, 116, b; in Pelo- 
ponnesus, 127-130. 

Doric order (in architecture), 154. 

Dorus, fabled ancestor of Dorians, 
116, b. 

Dra'co, 139. 

Drainage system, at Knossos, 93. 

Drama, Greek, 146, 155, 221, 222; of 
Graeco-Oriental world, 282, 313; 
Roman, 624 fP. 

Dress, Egyptian, see illustrations, 
pp. 22 ff. ; Assyrian, p. 68; Persian, 
p. 87; Cretan, 96; Greek, 236; 
Roman, 412. 

Drii'sus, rival of Gracchus, 517. 



652 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Drusus, champion of Italians, 526. 
Dy'ar«h-y, 592. 

Bbro, the, map after p. 372. 

Ec-bat'a-na, map after p. 82. 

Economic conditions, definition of 
term, 136; in Egypt, 12-21; in 
Chaldea and Assyria, 44-46, 51; in 
Cretan civilization, 97; in Homeric 
Greece, 108-110; in Sparta, 129; in 
Athens at 600 B.C., 136; Solon's re- 
forms, 141 ; in age of Pericles, 237 ; 
reaction of Oriental conquests on 
European Greece, 284; in late 
Sparta, 306; attempts at reform 
by Agis and Cleomenes, 307, 308; 
early Roman, 340, 408-410; after 
Punic Wars, 480-484, 488; reforms 
of the Gracchi, 506-518; overthrown, 
519; Caesar's attempts at reform, 
558; in early Empire, 609-611, 613, 
614, 631 ; decline in 3d century, 649, 
650 ; more serious in 4th century, 
687-699; in Charlemagne's Empire, 
798. 

Education and learning, in Egypt, 
24; in Chaldea, 47-49; in Persia, 
78; in Sparta, 130; importance of 
Greek theater for, 222, 223 ; in 
Athens (typical of Greece), 240; 
early Roman, 413; under Empire, 
619, 620 ; decline in 4th century, 
703-704; in "Dark Ages," 751; and 
Monasteries, 759 ; and Charlemagne, 
800. 

E-ge'ri-a, 335. 

Egypt, early history rediscovered, 5 ; 
home of early -culture, 6 ; geogra- 
phy of, 8, 9; people, 10; growth of 
city-states into a kingdom, 11 ; so- 
cial classes, 12, 13 ; life of the 
wealthy, 14; life of the poor, 15; 
position of woman, 16; irrigation, 
17; agriculture, 18; trade, 19; in- 
dustrial arts, 20; fine arts, 21; 
pyramids, 21 ; literature and hiero- 
glyphs, 22; science, 23; religion, 24; 
idea of future life, 25; morals, 26; 
story of the pharaohs, 27-33 ; under 
the Ptolemies, 293; Alexandrian 



Age, 312-320; and Rome, 463, 464, 
466 ; and Roman Empire, 619, 620. 

El'be, the, map after p. 488. 

Elections, in Sparta, 128 ; in Athens 
142, 152, 210; in Achaean League 
301, 302. 

Elg-in marbles, 219. 

Ells, 117. Map after p. 98. 

Elishah, 55. 

E lys'I-um, 112. 

Embalming-, Egyptian, 25. 

Em-ped'6-cles, philosopher, 225. 

Empire, defined, 37, close. 

Empire of Charlemagne, prepara- 
tion for, by early Franks, 744, 764- 
767, 782-784, 786; by wars of Charle- 
magne, 787, 788, 789; revival of 
"Roman Empire," 792-794; com- 
pared with "Greek Empire," 795; 
Teutonic character, 796 ; society and 
government, 798, 799; place in his- 
tory, 801-802. Map after p. 630. 

England, see Britain. 

En'ni-us, 624. 

E-pam-i-non'das, 264-267. 

Eph'e-sus, 122, 156. Maps after pp. 
94, 98, etc. 

Eph-i-al'tes, Athenian statesman, 
197, 198. 

Ephialtes, "Judas of Greece," 176. 

Ephors, Spartan, 128, 129. 

Epic Age, in Greece, 155. 

Ep'Ic-te'tus, 630. 

Ep-i-cu-re'an-ism, 316, 317. 

Ep-i-cu'rus, 316. 

E-pi'rus, 85. Map after p. 94. 

Equites (6k'wi-tez), Roman monied 
aristocracy, 480-484. 

Er-a-tos'the-nes, keeper of the 
Alexandrian library, 320. 

E-reeh-the'um, 218. 

E-re'tri-a, 164, 167. Map after p. 98. 

E-sar-had'don, 40. 

Es'qul-line, the, map, p. 311. 

E-tW-o'pI-a, 9, 28, 30, 31. Map, p. 16. 

E-tru'ri-a, map after p. 302. 

Etruscans, 331, 338. 

Eu-boe'a, 122. Maps after pp. 94, 9a 

Eu'clid, 320. 

Eu-dox'i-a, 726. 



INDEX 



653 



The references are to sections. 



Eu-pa'trids, at Athens, 135-142. 
Bu-phra'tes, early home of civiliza- 

tion,6; "souloftheland,"34. Maps 

after pp. 12, 82, etc., and on p. 55. 
Eu-rlp'i-des, Greek tragedian, 221. 
Europe, contrasted with Asia, 82; 

typified by Greece, 81 IT. 
Eu-rym'e-don, battle of the, 192. 
Eu-se'bi-us, 702. 
Eu-tro'pi-us, 701. 
Ex-Sreh'ate of Ra-v§n'-na, map 

after p. 622. 
Ex'or-cist, 681, note. 
Experiment, method of, not known 

to Greeks, 230. 
Explorations, in the east, 5; at 

Troy, 90 ; at Mycenae, 91 ; in Crete, 

93. 
Ezekiel, describing the grandeur of 

Tyre, 55. 

Fa'bi-an policy, 441. 

Fa'bi-us (Q. Fabius Maximus), 441. 

Fabius Pictor, 334, 624. 

Factories, in Athens, 237; in cities of 
Roman Empire, 611. 

Fire-making-, and prehistoric man, 
3. 

Fl^m-i-ni'nus, 464. 

Fla'vi-an Caesars, the, 580 ff. 

Fla'vi-us, democratic aedile, 397, 
note, 402. 

Flo-ri-a'nus, 646, note. 

Fo'rum, at Rome, 338. Map, p. 529. 

Franks, the, 705, 719; preeminence 
among Teutonic conquerors, 739; 
Clovis and his empire, 740-742; 
Frankish empire of the 7th century, 
743, 744, 764-766; and the early 
Carolingians, 767, 773,782-784; Em- 
pire of Charlemagne (which see). 
Maps after pp. 572, 576, 594, etc. 

Freya, 708. 

Frieze (frez), in architecture, 154. 

Ga'des, see Cadiz. 

Ga-la'ti-a, 290. Map after p. 488. 

Gal'bM,, 580. 

Ga'len, 628. 

Ga-le'ri-us, 672; edict of, 672. 



Gal-li-e'nus, 644, note. 

Gauls, invasion of Greece and Asia, 
290; in Cisalpine Gaul, 332; sack 
Rome, 375 ; conquest by Caesar, 547 ; 
admitted to citizenship, 560. 

Gei'ser-ic, 718. 

Ge'lon, of Syracuse, 160. 

Ge-mel'lus, 612. 

" General," political administrator 
at Athens, 152, 209; in Achaean 
League, 300. 

Gens, pi. gentes, see Clan. 

Ge-nu'ci-us, 362, 363. 

Geography, and history, in Egypt, 6, 
9, 11; in Euphrates regions, 6, 34; 
contrasts between Europe and Asia, 
82, 84; Greece, typical of Europe, 
85, 86; influence of Mediterranean, 
83; of Rome and Italy, 326-329, 333. 

Geometry, Egyptian, 24; Babylo- 
nian, 49; later Greek, 390. 

Germans, early invasion, 523-524; 
and Caesar, 547 ; and Augustus, 606 ; 
revolt of Hermann, 606; invasions 
renewed, 648-687, 710 ff . ; early 
homes, 705; stage of culture, 706; 
character, 707; religion, 708; gov- 
ernment, 709, 710. See Alemanni, 
Biirgundians, Goths, etc. 

Gibraltar, Straits of, 54, note. Map 
after p. 132. 

Gid'e-on, 61. 

Gilds, Roman, 408, 693. 

Gladiators, 486, 629. 

Gor-di-a'nus I, 644, note. 

Gordianus II, 644, note. 

Gordianus III, 644, note. 

Gor'g-I-as, sophist, 225. 

Go'shen, 59. 

Goths, see Ostrogoths and Visigoths. 

Government, class rule selfish, 125. 
See Monarchy, Oligarchy, Democ- 
racy. 

Grac'^hus, Caius, 513-520. 

Gracchus, Tiberius, 506-512. 

Graeco-Oriental world, the, 280- 
327; mingling of East and West, 
280; Hellenism the active element 
in, 281; Greek cities in (the many 
Alexandrias), 282; reaction upon 



654 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



European Hellas, 283-286; Wars of 
the Succession, 287; third century 
B.C. in, 288; resemblance to modern 
Europe, 289; Gallic invasion, 290; 
decline, 291; some separate states, 
292-295; Achaean League (which 
see) ; society and culture, 312-321. 

Gra-ni'cus, battle of the, 278. Map 
after p. 266. 

GrS'ti-an, 672. 

Greek Church, the, 778. 

" Greek Empire," the, 734-738. 

Greek federations, age of, 297; 
Aetolian, 298; Achaean, 299-311; 
Lycian, 301; Olynthiac, 261. See 
Peloponnesian League, Confederacy 
of Delos, Rhodes. 

Greek fire, 772. 

Greek life, in Homeric Age, 108-110 ; 
in Age of Pericles, 233-240. See 
Sparta. 

Greek philosophy, "Ionic" (sixth 
century), 156; in Age of Pericles, 
225-227; in Alexandrian Age, 315- 
318. 

Greek religion, 98, 100-102, 111-112, 
231. 

Greeks, the, invasions into Egypt 
about 1350 B.C., 31 ; and geography, 
82-86; rediscovery of prehistoric 
Greece, 87-93; Cretan culture, 94:- 
97 ; Achaean culture (Homeric) , 98- 
112; clan and tribe, 100-103; the 
city-state, 103, 104; government in 
Homeric Age, 105-107; simple so- 
ciety, 108; manners harsh, 109; 
occupations, 110; Dorian conquest, 
113 ; Phoenician influence, 114 ; gap 
in our knowledge, from 1100 to 600, 
115; unity of feeling attained, 116- 
119; expansion by colonization, 
121-123; disappearance of Homeric 
kingship, 124; "Age of Tyrants," 
126 ; rise of Sparta to military head- 
ship, see Sparta ; rise of democ- 
racy in Athens, see Athens ; art and 
philosophy at 600, 154-157 ; Persian 
Wars (which see) ; Athenian leader- 
ship, see Athens ; Spartan leader- 
ship, see Sparta ; Theban leadership, 



264-267 ; art, literature, and philos- 
ophy, in Age of Pericles, 217-232; 
life and industries, 233-240 ; Mace- 
donian conquest, 269-275 ; failure of 
city-state, 268, 275; in the Orient, 
after Alexander, 280-282; reaction 
from the Orient, 283-285; political 
situation in third century, 296; 
Achaean League (which see) ; Alex- 
andrian Age, 312-321; civilization 
compared with Roman, 324, 325; 
geography of, compared with Italian, 
328, 329; Magna Graecia falls to 
Rome, 381 ; Greek cities friendly to 
Rome, 463, 464,465; Roman " allies " 
defended by Rome against Antio- 
chus, 465; petty quarrels among, 
and revulsion of feeling toward 
Rome, 470; rearrangements by 
Rome, and a Roman province, 471 ; 
diocese, 666; Alaric in Greece, 713. 

Greeks in Italy, 122, 331 ; conquest 
by Rome, 381 ; influence on Rome, 
413-^16. See Mac/na Graecia. 

Gregory II, Pope, 780. 

Gregory III, Pope, 780._ 

Gregory of Tours (toor), quoted, 
742. 

Gun'do-bald, 717. 

Hadrian, Emperor, 587. 

Hadrian, Pope, 780. 

Hadrian's Wall, 587, 607. Map after 
p. 544. 

Hal-i-car-nas'sus, 224. Map after 
p. 94. 

Ha'lys River, 70. Map after p. 82. 

Ha-mil'car Barca, 427, 431, 436, 437. 

Ham-mu-ra'bi, king of Babylon, 39; 
code of, 45, 46. 

Hanging Gardens of Babylon, 52. 

Han'ni-bal, 437-455, 459. 

Har'mosts, Spartan, 253. 

Ha-roun' al Raschid, 797, note. 

Hasdrubal, the Barcide, 447, 452, 453. 

Hebrews, 58-66; age of patriarchs, 
58; Egyptian captivity, 31, 59; set- 
tlement in Palestine, 60 ; the Judges, 
61 ; Kings and Prophets, 62; David 
and Solomon, 63; division and de* 



INDEX 



655 



The references are to sections. 



cline, 64 ; Assyrian captivity, 40, 
65; repulse of Sennacherib, from 
Jerusalem, 40; Babylonian captiv- 
ity, 42, 65; return to Palestine, 66, 
78; priestly rule, 66; a dependent 
state, 66; the Maccabees, 66; mis- 
sion in history — religion, 67, 68 ; in 
Alexandria, 319 ; Maccabees and 
Rome, 467; a dependent state and 
finally a province, 582; destruction 
and dispersion, 582. 

Hector, Trojan hero, 109. 

He-g-i'ra, the, 769. 

Helen of Troy, 87. 

HSl'las, 84. 

Hel'len, mythical ancestor of Hel- 
lenes, 84, 116, b. 

Hel-le'nes, 84. 

Hellenism and Hellenistic, terms 
explained, 288, note 1. 

H§l'les-pont, the, 166, 171. Maps 
after pp. 94, 98, 132, etc. 

H§rots,129, 197. 

H§l-ve'ti-i, 547. 

Hephaestus (he-fgs'tus). 111. 

Hera, 111. 

Her-a-clei'tus, 156. 

Her at', 281. 

Her-cu-la'ne-um, 583. Map, p. 473. 

Her'cu-les, 111, note. 

Hermann, 605. 

Her'mes, 111. 

Hermits, 759. 

He-rod'o-tus, in Egypt, 21 ; place in 
literature, 224. 

Her-u-li, the, 728. 

He'si-od, 155. 

Hes'ti-a, 111. 

Hi'e-ro II, 422, 429. 

Hi'er-o-glyphs, Egyptian, 22; on 
the Rosetta stone, 5. See Cunei- 
form tvriting. 

HIm'e-ra, battle of, 181. Map after 
p. 132. 

Hindoos, see India. 

Hip-par'-ehus, son of Pisistratus, 147. 

Hipparchus, the scientist, 320. 

Hip'pi-as, son of Pisistratus, 147, 167. 

History, definition of, 1, 4; divisions, 
4, 802. 



HIt'tites, 7 ; and Egyptians, 32. Maps, 
pp. 55, 77. 

Homeric Ag-e, the, see Achaean 
civilization. 

Ho-mer'ic poems, 87. 

Ho-no'ri-us, 680. 

Hop'lites, and political power, 137. 

Horace, 626; quoted, 489. 

Ho-ra'ti-us, 350, note. 

H6r-ten'si-an Law, the, 399. 

H6s-til'i-us, Tul'lus, 335. 

Houses, Egyptian, 14, 15; in Eu- 
phrates valley, 52; in primitive 
Aegean civilization, 94; in age of 
Pericles, 233; early Roman, 340; 
Roman about 200 B.C., 411; after 
Punic Wars, 485. 

Huns, 721-724. Map after p. 576. 

Hyk'sos, 29, 30, 57. 

Hy-met'tus, 146. Map, p. 180. 

Hy-per'bo-lus, 247. 

Hy'pha-sis River, 279. Map after 
p. 266. 

I-a-pyg'i-ans, 332. Map, p. 304. 

I-con-o-clas'tic question, the, 778, 
note. 

Ic-ti'nus, 218. 

H'i-ad, 87. 

Il'i-um, 87. See Troy. 

lUyria, 270, 277, 432. Map after p. 94. 

Im'bros, 260. Map after p. 94. 

Immortality, belief in, prehistoric 
man, 1; Egyptian, 25; Babylonian, 
53; Persian, 78; Greeks, 112, 231; 
Socrates on, 227. 

Im-per-a'tor, title adopted by Caesar, 
537 ; by Augustus, 569 ; by later em- 
perors, 593. 

India, early civilization in, why not 
studied, 4; and Persian Empire, 73; 
and Alexander the Great, 279. 

Indus, the, 73. Map after p. 84. 

Industries, in Egypt, 18-20; in Eu- 
phrates states, 51; in Crete, 96; in 
Homeric Greece, 110 ; in Age of Per- 
icles, 237; early Roman, 340; about 
200 B.C., 408, 409; after Punic Wars 
— growth of capitalism and decline 
of free industries, 480-483, 488-492; 



656 



ESFDEX 

The references are to sections. 



in Early Empire, 611-613; in later 
Empire, 649, 687-695; in Empire of 
Cliarlemagne, 798. 

Ion, fabled ancestor of lonians, 116, b. 

I-6'nI-a, Phoenicians in, 55; colonized 
by Greeks, 121 ; early center of art 
and philosophy, 154-157; Persian 
conquest of, 163; revolt, 164, 165; 
Persian War in, after Plataea, 188, 

189 if. ; calls Athens to leadership, 

190 (see Confederacy of Delos) ; 
betrayed to Persia by Sparta, 250, 
260. Map after p. 94. 

lonians, Greek "race," mythical or- 
igin of, 116, 6; driven out of Pelo- 
ponnesus by Dorians, 113, 121 ; 
contrasted with Dorians, 120; colo- 
nization of Ionia, 121 (see Ionia) ; 
democracy among, 120, 195 ; in Sic- 
ily, 195. 

Ionic order of architecture, 154. 

Iran (e-ran'), Plateau of, 40, 41, 71, 

_72 Map after p. 12. 

I-rene', Empress, 792. 

Iron, importance of, in civilization, 2 ; 
no manufactures of, in Egypt until 
800 B.C., 20; known to Achaeans, 98. 

Irrigation, in Egypt, a cause of 
political union, 11; description of, 
17 ; the work of the " Middle King- 
dom," 28; in Babylonia, 35. 

Is'e-as, patriot-tyrant, 299. 

Is-kan'dar, 281. Map after p. 266. 

I-s6c'ra-tes, 225. 

Israel, Kingdom of, 64, 65. See 
Hebreivs. Map, p. 77. 

Is'sus, battle of, 278. Map after 
p. 266. 

Italy, map after p. 302. Greek colo- 
nies in, see Magna Graecia ; mean- 
ing of name in ancient times, 326 ; 
geography, 326-329; peoples, 330- 
332. See Rome, Goths, Lombards. 

Ith'a-ca, maps after pp. 94, 98. 

I-u'lus, 544. 



Jacob, .58. 

Ja-nlc'u-lum, Mount, 339. 

p. 305. 
Ja'nus, 341. 



Map, 



Javan, 55. 

Jax-ar'tes River, 73. Map after p. 84. 

Jeph'thah, 61. 

Je-rome', Saint, 702. 

Jerusalem, besieged by Sennacherib, 
40; sacked by Nebuchadnezzar, 35, 
42, 65 ; capital of Kingdom of Judah, 
64; destruction by Titus, 582 ; patri- 
archate of, 682 ; becomes a Moham- 
medan possession, 777. Maps after 
pp. 12, 82, etc., and on p. 77. 

Jews, see Hebrews. 

Joseph, 12. 59. 

Joshua, 60. 

J6'vi-an, 679. 

Judah, Kingdom of, 64 ff. Map on 
p. 77. See Hebreios. 

Judea, see Hebreios and Judah. 

Judges, of Hebrews, 61. 

Jug'e-ra, 370. 

Ju-gur'tha, 521, 522, 

Julian the Apostate 678. 

Julian Caesars, the, 591 ff. 

Ju-li-a'nus, 640. 

Ju'no, 111. 

Ju'pi-ter, 111. 

Jury, Athenian, 211 ; pay for, 212. 

Jus-tln'i-an, 736-738 ; code of, 737. 

Jutes, in Britain, 720. Map after 
p. 594. 

Ju've-nal, 628; quoted, 484, 632. 

Ka-di'jah, 769. 

Kan-da-har', 281. Map after p. 266. 

Karl'mann, 782. 

Kar'nak, temple at, 21. Map, p. 16. 

Khu-fu, see Cheops. 

King-priest, in Athens, 134 ; in Rome, 

350. 
Kingship, see Absolute Monarchy. 

Greek, in Homeric Age, 105; in early 

Rome, 346; Teutonic, 709 ; in " Dark 

Ages," 761. 
Kitchen utensils, in ancient Crete, 

m. Illustration on p. 113. 
KIt'i-on, 55. 
Knossos, Palace of, 93, 96; fall, 97. 

See Cretan Civilization. Map after 

p. 12. 
K6-ran', the, 769. 



INDEX 



657 



The references are to sections. 



Labor, see Agriculture, Industries. 
Lac-e-dae-mo'ni-ans, see Sparta. 
La-co'ni-a, Spartan supremacy in, 
127; classes in, 129. Map after p. 
98. 
Lac-tan'ti-us, 651. 
Landholding, in Eygpt, 12; in Chal- 
dea, 44; in Sparta, 129; Cleoraenes' 
reforms in, 306-308; in early Ath- 
ens, 136; Solon's reforms concern- 
ing, 141 ; in Age of Pericles, 237, 
238; in early Rome, 341, 357, 359, 
361; Licinian laws, 370; grants to 
poor citizens, 409; land engrossed 
by the wealthy after Punic Wars, 
480-492; attempts at reform, the 
Gracchi's, 507-519; Caesar's, 558; 
monopoly of, under Empire, 611, 
694,699; serfdom, 698. 

Language, prehistoric development, 
3, d; race and, 36, close; Semitic, 
ib.; unity of Greek, 116, a; in 
Graeco-Oriental world, 281, 282; 
Latin in the West, 475 ; Greek in the 
East, ih. ; growth of Romance 
tongues, 751, h. 

La-6c'o-on, statue and story of, p. 
2i)0. 

Latin colonies, 390. 

Latins, 331. 

Latin War of 338 B.C., 379. 

La'ti-um, 337. Map after p. 302. 

Laws, Babylonian, 45, 46; of " Ly- 
curgus," 30 ; of Draco, 139 ; of Solon, 
141-143 ; in early Rome, unwritten, 
356 ; the " Twelve Tables," 362, 364 ; 
"plebiscites," 365; Lioinian, 370, 
371; Hortensian, 399; of the Grac- 
chi ,.507-519; of Caesar, 558 ; sources 
of, under Empire, 593, 669; Justin- 
ian's Code, 737 ; Teutonic, 717, 731, 
760. 

Lay'ard, 47. 

Leaders of the People, in Athens, 
209. 

Lebanon Mountains, map on p. 77. 

Legion, the Roman, 403. 

Lem'nos, 260. Maps after pp. 94, 98. 

Leo II, Pope, and Attila, 724. 

Leo III, Pope, and Charlemagne, 793. 



Leo the I-sau'ri-an, 778-780. 

Le-6n'i-das, 176. 

Le-o-ty-eh'i-des, 188, note. 

Lep'i-dus, 564, 565. 

Les'bos, 155, 195. Map after p. 94. 

Leuctra, battle of, 263. Map after 
p. 98. 

Libations, in Greek worship, 101. 

Libraries, Babylonian, 47, 48; in 
Graeco-Oriental world, 282; at Al- 
exandria, 319. 

Li-cln'i-an laws, the, 370. 

Li-cln'i-us, Emperor, 673. 

Ll-gU'ri-ans, map, p. 304, and after 
p. 302. 

Li'ris, the, map after p. 302. 

Literature, Egyptian, 22; Chaldean, 
48-50; spread over Syria, 38; He- 
brew, 67; Oriental contrasted with 
European, 80; early Greek Epic 
Age, 87, 155; in Athens of Pisistra- 
tus, 146; Lyric Age, 155; drama, 
146, 155, 221-222, 313; the Age of 
Pericles, 221-224; Alexandrian Age, 
312-313; Roman about 200 B.C., 414; 
before Cicero, 624 ; Age of Cicero, 
625; Augustan Age, 626; 1st cen- 
tury after Augustus, 627; 2d cen- 
tury, 628; 3d century, 651; 4th 
century, 700-702; and the church, 
703; and the barbarians, 703; in 
the "Dark Ages," 751. 

Liv'i-us An-dro-ni'cus, 624. 

Livy, 334, 362, 626. 

Lo'cris, map after p. 98. 

Loire (Iwar), map after p. 576. 

Lombards, 738. 

Long Walls of Athens, 200 (plan, 
p. 189) ; demolished, 254. 

Lot, in elections, 142. 

Louvre (loovr), art museum in mod- 
ern Paris. 

Lu'can, 627. 

Lu'ci-an, 628. 

Lu-cre'ti-us, 625. 

Lyc'i-an Confederacy, 301. 

Ly-cur'gus, 127, 130. 

Lyd'i-a, map after p. 82. 

Ly-di'a-das, 304, 309. 

Lyons, map after p. 586. 



658 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Lyric Age, the, 155. 
Ly-san'der, 247, 251. 

Mac'ca-bees, the, 66, 467. 

Mac-e-do'nia, map after p. 94; sub- 
ject to Persia iu 500, 165; under 
Theban influence, 266; and Philip 
II, 269-270; expansion by Philip, 
270-271; army, 273; conquest of 
Greece, 274-275; under Alexander, 
see Alexander; after Wars of the 
Succession, one of three Great Pow- 
ers, 287, 294; decline, 291; and 
Achaean League, 296, 310 ; and Rome, 
445, 463-471. 

Macedonian Army, 273. 

Macedonian Wars, First, 463 ; Sec- 
ond, 464; Third, 470. 

Ma-cri'nus, 642. 

Mae-ce'nas, 571, note. 

Mae'li-us, Spu'ri-us, 362. 

Magic, Chaldean, 49. 

Magism (Persian), 78. 

Magna Graecia, 122. Map after 
p. 132. 

Mag-ne'si-a, battle of, 465. Map 
after p. 372. 

Mam'er-tines, 422. 

Man-i-chae'ans, 684. 

Man-ti-ne'a, broken up into villages 
by Sparta, 261; restored, 265; bat- 
tle of, 267. Map after p. 258. 

Manufactures, see Industrial arts, 
Factories. 

M§,r'a-thon, battle of, 167; impor- 
tance, 168. Maps after pp. 94, 98, 
and on pp. 170, 171, 180. 

March of the Ten Thousand, 257. 

Mar-cel'lus, 448. 

Mar-d6'nl-us. 166, 167, 181, 182. 

Ma'ri-us, 522, 523. 

Marriage, Greek, 100 ; in Age of Per- 
icles, 235. 

Mars, 111, .341. 

Mar'ti-al, 631. 

Mas-sll'i-a, 122. Map after p. 132. 

Mas-si-nis'sa, 459. 

Max-im'i-an, 663. 

Mayflelds, 761, c, 799, e. 

Medes, 41, 71. 



Me'di-a, see Medes. Map on p. 55. 
Medieval history, 759, note. 
Med-i-ter-ra'ne-an Sea, importance 

of, 83. 
Meg-a-16p'o-lis, 265, 304. Maps after 

pp. 98, 258. 
Meg'a-ra, captures Salamis from 

Athenians, 140; Athenian alliance, 

199 ; treachery of, 201 ; commercial 

interests, 241 ; enters Achaean 

League, 304. Maps after pp. 98, 198. 
Meg'a-ris, map after p. 98. 
Mem'phis, 11. Map, p. 16. 
Me-nan'der, 313. 
Men-e-ia'us, 87, 92. 
Me'nes, king of Egypt, 11, 27. 
Mercenaries, "War of the, 431. 
Me-ro-vln'gi-ans, name explained, 

744 ; Empire of, 765. 
Me'sheck, 55. 
Mes-o-po-ta'mi-a, 35. Map after 

p. 12. 
Mes-sa'na, map after p. 372. 
Mes-se'ne, 265. Map after p. 258. 
Mes-se'ni-a, 127, 196. Map after p. 98. 
Me-tau'rus, battle of the, 453. Map 

after p. 302. 
Met'o-pe, 154. 

Metropolis, of a Greek colony, 123. 
Met-ro-pol'i-tan, see Archbishops. 
" Middle Ages," 759, note. 
Mi-lan', map after p. 302. Edict of, 

676. 
Mi-le'tus, map after pp. 94, 98, etc. 
Mil-ti'a-des, 167, 169. 
Mil'vi-an Bridge, battle of the, 673. 
Mi'nos, of Crete, 93. 
Mls'si Do-min'i-ci, 799, b. 
Mith-ri-da'te§ the Great, 528, 532, 

542. 
i/nes'i-cles, 218. 
Mo-h§,m'med, 768-770. 
Mo-ham'me-dan-ism, 768-774. 
Monarchy, definition of, 85. 
Mo-n&s'ti-cism, origin, 759. 
Money, no coinage in ancient Egypt, 

19; nor in Euphrates states, 70; 

coinage in Lydia, 70 ; at Sparta, 130 ; 

Solon's, at Athens, 143 ; abundant in 

Greece after Alexander, 284; early 



INDEX 



65d 



The references are to sections. 



Roman, 410; under Empire, drain 
to Orient, 613; lack in later Em- 
pire, 688 ; and in Middle Ages, 798. 

Morality., Egyptian, 24-26; Chaldean 
and Assyrian, 36, 41, 45, 46, 53; He- j 
brew, 67, 68; Persian, 78; Greek, 
86, 226, 227, 231 ; Roman, about 200 
B.C., 411, 415^16; after Punic Wars, 
480, 484 ; under the Empire, 630-638 ; 
Teutonic, 707; and "Dark Ages," 
756. 

Moses, 60. 

Mount Athos, 166, 177. Map after 
p. 94. 

Miin'da, 555. Map after p. 372. 

Municipal government, under the 
Empire, 597. 

Municipia (Roman), 385. 

Museum (mii-se'um), Plato's, at 
Athens, 319; Ptolemy's, at Alexan- 
dria, 319. 

Myc'a-le, battle of, 189. Map after 
p. 94. 

My-ce'nae, 91. Map after p. 94. 

Mycenaean culture, term ex- 
plained, 94. 

Myths, Greek, 111; Roman, 341. 

Nae'vi-us, 624. 

Nahum, on fall of Assyria, 41. 

Nar-bonne', 620. Map after p. 586. 

Nar'ses, 736. 

Nature worship, Egyptian, 24; 
Chaldean, 53; Greek, 98, 111; Ro- 
man, 341 ; Teutonic, 708. 

Nau-pac'tus, 195. Map after p. 98. 

Nau-slc'a-a, 108. 

Navy, growth of Athenian, 170, 176, 
178, 186; skill with, 242, 246 (see 
Trireme) ; Roman, 424, 425. 

Nax'os,195. Maps after pp. 94, 98, 198. 

Ne-§,p'o-lis (Naples)', 195. Map after 
p. 302. 

Ne-ar'chus, 285 ; route of, map after 
p. 266. 

Neb-u--ehad-nez'zar, 42 ; prayer of, 
58. 

Ne'co, king of Egypt, 32. 

Ne'pos, 625. 

Nero, Claudius, consul, 453. 



Nero, Emperor, 579. 

Ner'va, 585. 

Neus'tri-a, 764. Map after p. 608. 

New Stone Age, 2. 

Ni-cae'a, Council of, 684. Map after 
p. 586. 

Ni-cene' Creed, the, 684. 

NIc'i-as, 247, 248. 

Nic-o-me'di-a. Map after p. 544. 

Nile, 9. Map, p. 16. 

Nineveh, 37, 40, 41; palace of, de- 
scribed, 52; commerce of, 51. Map 
after p. 12. 

Nor-thum'bri-a. Map after p. 630. 

Nu'ma, 335 ; and gilds, 408. 

Nu-mer-i-a'nus, 646, note. 

Ob-sld'i-an, 95. 

Oc-ta'vi-us, tribune, deposed by 
Gracchus, 509. 

Octavius Caesar, 564-567. See 
Augustus. 

O-de'um, 218. 

O-do-a'cer, see Odovaker. 

O-do-va'ker, 728. 

O-dys'seus, 87, 92, 107, 108, 110, 112, 

Od'ys-sey, 87. 

Oe-no'phy-ta, battle of, 200. Map 
after p. 246. 

Old Stone Age, 2. 

Oligarchy, definition of, 85 ; origin in 
Greece, 124 ; overthrown by tyrants, 
125; in Athens, 135-139; overthrow 
in Athens, 141-142; struggle with 
democracy in Greece, 159; set up 
by Sparta in subject cities, 253; in 
Thebes (see T/ie6es) ; in early Rome, 
344 fe. 

O-lym'pi-a, 117. Map after p. 98. 

Olympiad, 116. 

Olympias, 276. 

Olympic games, 116, 117. 

Olympus, 111. Map after p. 94. 

O-lyn'thi-ac Confederacy, 261, 297. 

Olynthus, 122. Map after p. 94. 

Oratory, in Greece and Athens, 223. 

Ordeal, Trial by, 760. 

O-res'tes, 728. 

Oriental^ history, introductory to 
Greek history, 4 ; summary, 79-81. 



660 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Or'i-gen, 651. 
0-rIg"i-ne§, of Cato, 624. 
Orleans. Map after p. 576. 
Os'ti-a, 339. Map on p. 305. 
Ostracism, 153 ; of oligarchic leaders 

at Athens, 169; of Aristides, 170; 

of Cimon, 198. 
Os'tro-goths, 729-733. Map, p. 572. 
Otho, 580. 
Ovid, 618. 

Oxus River, 279. Map after p. 84. 
O-zy-man'di-as, p. 11. 

Pae'tus, 632. 

Pagans, term explained, 685, note. 

Painting-, Egyptian, 21; Greek, 154, 
314. 

Pal'a-tine Hill, map, p. 311. 

Palestine, 60. Map, p. 77. 

Pallas Athene, see Athene. 

Pal-my'ra, map after p. 488. 

Pam-phy-ri-a, 192. Map after p. 132. 

Pan-Hellenic Confederation, pro- 
posed by Athens, 187, 188. 

Pan'the-on, 622. 

Papacy, the, claims of Roman bishops 
to headship of church, 775 ; advant- 
ages of Rome, 776 ; Eastern rivals re- 
moved by Mohammedan conquest, 
777, and by the Great Schism, 778 ; 
growth into a temporal power, 77&- 
784. 

Pa-pln'i-an, 643. 

Papy'rus, 5. 

Pa'ros, 169. Map after p. 94. 

Par-r/ia'si-us, 314. 

Par'the-non, 219, 220. See plan of 
Acropolis, p. 209, and illustrations, 
pp. 156, 158, 212. 

Par'thi-ans, 278, 549. Map after p.488. 

" Partnership Emperors," 663 ff. 

Patriarch, in the Church organiza- 
tion, 681. 

Patriarchs, Hebrew, 58. 

Pa-trl'cians, 344; organization, 345; 
government, 346; struggles with 
plebeians, 356-371. 

Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, 653. 

Pau-sa'ni-as, king of Sparta, 190. 

Pausanias, historian, 628. 



Peace of Antal'cidas, 260. 

Peasantry, Egyptian, 15, 18; Chal- 
dean, 44 ; Greek, in Age of Pericles, 
237; Roman, early, 340, 408-412; 
after Punic Wars, 480, 488-491; in 
later Empire, 694. 

Pediments, in architecture, 154. 

Pe-16p'i-das, 262. 

Pel-o-pon-ne'si-an League, 162. 

Peloponnesian War, 241-251. 

Pel-o-pon-ne'sus, map, p. 165. 

Pe-na'tes, 101. 

Pen-tel'i-cus, 167. Map on p. 180. 

Per'ga-mos, 295, 312. Map after 
p. 372. 

Per-i-an'der, 126. 

Per'i-cle§, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202 £f. 

Per-sep'o-lis, 74. Map after p. 84. 

Per'seus, of Macedonia, 470. 

Persian Gulf, maps after pp. 12, 82, 
84, etc. 

Persian Wars, 159-183, 187-193, 200- 
202, 258-260; the antagonists, 159- 
161; conquest of Ionia, 163; revolt 
of Ionia and Athenian aid, 164 ; first 
two attacks on Greece, 165-167 ; re- 
lation of Ionian revolt to Persian 
attack, 165; first expedition. Mount 
Athos, 166; second expedition, 
Marathon, 167; from Marathon to 
Thermopylae in Athens, 168-170; 
the third attack, 171-183; Persian 
preparation, 171; Greek prepara- 
tion, 172; Greek lines of defense 
and plan of campaign, 173, 174; loss 
of Thessaly, 175 ; Thermopylae, loss 
of Central Greece, 176; strategy of 
Themistocles, 178; battle of Sala- 
mis, 179; temptation of Athens, 
181 ; Plataea, 182 ; meaning of Greek 
victory, 183; league of Plataea, 
187; war to free Ionia, 189-192; 
peace, 202; war revived in Asia, 
258-259 ; peace of Antalcidas, 260. 

Per'ti-nax, 640. 

Pe' trine supremacy, doctrine of ,775. 

Phaed'rus, 232. 

Phalanx, Theban, 263; Macedonian, 
273; compared with legion, 403; 
conquered by legion, 464. 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



661 



Pha-le'rum, 185. Map, p. 189. 

Pha'raohs, of Egypt, 12. 

Pha'ros, lighthouse on, 320. 

Phar-sa'lus, battle of, 554. Map 
after p. 488. 

Phld'i-as, 220. 

Phi-dlp'pi-des, 167. 

Philip II, king of Macedonia, 270; 
aims and methods, 271 ; army, 273 ; 
invades Greece, 274; assassinated, 
276. 

Philip V,'of Macedon, 293, 445, 463, 
464. 

Phi-llp'pi, battle of, 566- Map after 
p. 488. 

Phi-lip 'pics, of Demosthenes, 272. 

Phi-llp'pus, 644, note. 

Phi-lls'tines, 61. Map, p. 77. 

Phil-o-poe'men, 311. 

Philosophy, see Greek Philosophy ; of 
Marcus Aurelius, 638; of 3d cen- 
tury, 651. 

Pho'cis, maps after pp. 94, 98. 

Phoe-ni'cians, 54-57; influence on 
Greece, 114. Map on p. 77. 

Phor'mi-o, 246. 

Phryg'i-a, maps after pp. 82, 84. 

Physical Geography, as a factor in his- 
torical development, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 
23, 34, 35, 52, 54, 58, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 
120, 133, 327-329, 333. 

Pillars of Hercules, 56. Map after 
p. 132. 

Pln'dar, 155, 277. 

Pip'pin of Her'is-tal, 766. 

Pippin the Short, 782-784. 

Pi-rae'us, 185. Map, p. 189. 

Pis-Is'tra-tus, 146. 

Plague, at Athens, 244; in Roman 
world, 649. 

" Plain," the, party in Athens, 145. 

Pla-tae'a, aids Athens at Marathon, 
167 ; battle of, 182, 183 ; League of, 
187. Maps after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

Plato, 315, 319. 

Plau'tus, 624. 

Plebeians, Roman, 344. 

Pleb'i-scltfis, 365. 

Pliny the Younger, 598, 630, 657. 

Plo-ti'nus, 651. 



Plutarch, 130, 628 ; quoted frequently 

Pnyx, 210. Map, p. 202. 

Pol'e-march, 134. 

Political, term explained, 104, note. 

Pol'li-o, 635, 

Po-lyb'i-us, 628; quoted frequently. 

Pom-pe'ii, 583. Map, p. 473. 

Pompey the Great, 537-555. 

Pon'ti-fex Max'i-mus, 557, 593. 

Pontiffs, Roman, 342. 

Pon'tus, map after p. 544. 

Pope, origin of name, 775, note. 

Por'phyr-^, 651. 

Por-sen'na, 350, note. 

Po-seI'don, 111. 

Post roads, Persian, 77. Map after 

p. 84. See Roman roads. 
Pottery, significance of, in culture, 

10; wheel a Babylonian invention, 

51 ; in Cretan civilization, 95, 96. 

Many illustrations of, and of Greek 

painting on, passim. 
Prae-nes'te, map, p. 305. 
Praetor, 372. 
Prae-to'ri-ans, 569. 
Prax-it'e-les, 220. 
Pre-fect'ure, in Italy, 390 ; model for 

provincial government, 435 ; a divi- 
sion of the Empire, 665; table of, 

666. Map of, after p. 544. 
Prehistoric time, 1; ages of, 2; 

contributions to civilization, 3; in 

Egypt, 10; in Greece, 87-97; in 

Italy, 337 ff. 
Priests, of Egypt, 12; of Hebrews, 

66; in early Greece and Rome, see 

King-priest. 
Pro'con-sul, 406. 
Prophets, Hebrew, 62. 
Prop-y-lae'a, of Acropolis^ 218, and 

illustration, p. 211. 
Pro-tec 'to-rate, term explained, 293. 
Provincial government, Roman, 

435, 498-503; and Caesar, 559, 560; 

under Empire, 599, 608-610, 616-617, 

665-668. 
Psam-met'i-chus, Pharaoh, 32 
Ptolemy I, of Egypt, 293. 
Ptolemy II (Philadelphus) , 21,/, 293, 

319, 320. 



662 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Ptolemy III, 293. 

Ptolemy, geographer, 628. 

Pul, see Tiglath-Plleser II. 

Punic Wars, see Carthage. 

Punjab, the, 73. Map after p. 84. 

Pu-pl-e'nus, (544, note. 

Pyd'na, battle of, 470. Map after 

p. 372. 
Pyramids, Egyptian, 21. 
Pyr'rAus, 381. 
Py-tha.g'o-ras, 156. 

Quad'i, the, 650. 
Quad-rlv'i-um, the, 619. 
Quaestors, 396. 
Quin-til'i-an, 627. 
Quir'i-nal, the, map, p. 311. 

Rad'o-gast, 726. 

Ra-me'ses II, 30. 

Ra-ven'na, map after p. 302. 

Re-gll'lus, Lake, 350. Map, p. 305. 

Reg'u-lus, 425-426. 

Re-ho-bo'am, 64. 

Relief sculpture, definition of, p. 
18, note; specimens of Egyptian, 
Assyrian, Greek, and Roman, in 
illustrations, passim. 

Religion., Egyptian, 24-26; Chaldean, 
53; Assyrian, 45, 53; Phoenician, 
57; Hebrew, 67, 68; Persian 78; 
Oriental, 80; in Greece, 98, 100-102, 
111, 112, 118, 119, 227, 231, 232 (see 
Greek Philosophy) ; Roman, 341- 
343; Teutonic, 707, 708. See Chris- 
tianity. 

Representative g-overnment, not 
a feature even of the Greek federa- 
tions, 301; none in Rome, 384; not 
in the provincial assemblies of the 
Empire, 599; to grow out of Teutonic 
Assemblies, 762. 

Rex sa-cro'rum, 350. 

R/?e'gi-um, 195. Map after p. 132. 

R/iodes, maps after pp. 94, 132. Con- 
federacy of, 288; center of Hellen- 
istic culture, 312; and Rome, 473. 
Map after p. 132. 

RIk'i-mer, 727. 

Roland, Song of. 789, note. 



Roman Assemblies, patrician (curi- 
ate) , 346 ; by centuries, 347, 348, 398, 
399; by Tribes, 365, 386, 398, 399; 
decline after Punic Wars, 494; in 
Early Empire, 596. 

Roman camp, 404. Plan of, p. 355. 

Romance languages, 751 and note. 

Roman colonies, 384, 389. Map, 
p. 348. 

Roman Empire, conditions leading 
to, see Rome ; despotism a medi- 
cine for, 551, 552; civil war, Caesar 
and Pompey, 553-556; work of 
Caesar, 556-559; form of Caesar's 
government, 557 ; Julius to Octavius, 
563-568 ; Augustus, 568-573 ; in first 
two centuries, 574 ff. ; story of, 575- 
591 ; character of government (prin- 
cipate), 592-595; local government, 
596-599; imperial defense, 600-607; 
boundaries, 605-606 ; two centuries of 
peace and prosperity, 608-610 ; cities, 
610-611; forms of industry, 611; 
commerce, 612, 613; travel, 612; 
banking and panics, 614 ; taxation 
and roads, 615; the world Roman- 
ized, 616, 617, 618; education, 619 
620; architecture, 621-623; litera- 
ture, 624-628; morals, 630-638 
" barrack emperors " of 3d century 
639-649; general decline of 3d cen 
tury, 747-749; barbarian attacks 
748; decline of nopulation, 649 
slavery as a cause of decline, 650 
decay in literature, 651 ; rise of 
Christianity (which see), 652-660 
Diocletian's reorganization, 661 ff. 
Constantine and victory of Chris- 
tianity, 672-677; Constantine to 
Theodosius, 677-680 ; the Church of 
the 4th century, 681-686; society in 
the 4th century, 687-697; govern- 
ment and the " money power," 698- 
699; decay in literature and science, 
700-704. ^QQ Teutons, Barbarian in- 
vasions, Roman Empire in the West, 
Roman Empire in the East. 

Roman Empire in the East, parti- 
tion (administrative) by Diocletian, 
663 ; final separation from the West, 



INDEX 



663 



The references are to sections. 



680 ; West Goths in, 712-713 ; nominal 
rule over Italy under Zeno, 728; 
East Goths in, 729; left alone, as a 
" Greek Empire," 734 ; Slavs in, 735 ; 
revival under Justinian, reconquests 
of Africa and Italy, 736-737; Justi- 
nian Code, 737 ; loss of Italy, except 
the South and the exarchate, 738; 
decay and new revival in eighth 
century, repulse of Mohammedans 
by Constantine IV and by Leo III, 
722; iconoclastic agitation in, 778; 
attempts to maintain control over 
Rome, 779-780 ; relation to the Em- 
pire of Charlemagne, 794, 795, 797. 

Roman Empire in the West, sepa- 
ration from the East, 680 ; crumbles 
away — causes, 687-699 (see Ger- 
mans) ; idea survives in Dark Ages, 
758; contributions to Europe, 762; 
revival by Charlemagne, 785-796. 
See Empire of Charlemagne. 

Roman family, 345. 

Roman Law, early, unwritten, 356; 
Twelve Tables, 362, 364; "plebi- 
scites," 365; codification begun by 
Caesar, 558; sources of imperial, 
593, 669; gentler spirit in first and 
second centuries, 636, 637 ; further 
development by great jurists in third 
century, 651 ; Justinian's codifica- 
tion, 737. 

Roman life, early, 340, 341, 345 ; about 
200 B.C., 407-416; after Punic Wars, 
484-492; in Early Empire, (i08-^18, 
630-636; decline in 3d and 4th cen- 
turies, 647-651, 687-699. 

Roman names, 454, note. 

Roman roads, 395, 615. Maps, p. 348 
and (for Empire) after p. 488. 

Roman Senate, origin, 34(j; of 200 
B.C., 400; decline after Punic Wars, 
495; in early Empire, 592-593, 594; 
disappears except as city council 
after Diocletian, 669. 

Rome (history), place in history, 322- 
324; contrasted with Greece, 325; 
geography, 333; legendary history, 
334-335; conclusions, as to regal, 
337-354; growth, 338-339; early 



home life, 340; religion, 341-343; 
classes, 344 ff. ; patrician organiza- 
tion and government, 345-346; ple- 
beians make way into Assembly of 
Centuries (which see) , 347-348 ; life 
king replaced by consuls, 349-350; 
class struggles in early Republic, 
357-370 ; first secession of plebs, and 
tribunes, 362, 363; characteristics of 
contest, 362, 369; Twelve Tables 
(Decemvirs), 362-364; Assembly of 
Tribes and plebiscites, 365 ; social 
fusion, 366; plebeians admitted to 
consulship, 367-372 (see Licinian 
Rogations) ; unification of Italy, 373 
ff. ; progress before 367 b.c, 373- 
375; sacked by Gauls, 375; advance 
to 266 B.C. (Italy united), 376-381; 
Rome champion of Lowland civiliza- 
tion against barbarians of the High- 
lands and the Gauls, 377 ; acquires 
Central Italy, 378-380; Samnite 
wars, 380 ; Pyrrhic, 381 ; Italy under 
Rome, 382 ff. ; Roman state, extent, 
383; rights of citizens, 383, 386-387, 
394; subjects, 388-391,393; policy 
toward subjects, 394; roads, 395; 
perfected Republican constitution, 
396 ff. ; democratic theory and 
aristocratic practice, 397, 401 ; army, 
403-406; Roman life in its noblest 
age, 407^16; Greek influence, 416; 
winning of the West, 417 ff. ; First 
Punic War, 417 ff . ; strength of 
parties, 423; Rome becomes sea 
power, 424-425 ; wins Sicily, 429 ; 
between Punic Wars seizes Sardinia, 
430-431 : Adriatic a Roman sea, 432 ; 
conquest of Cisalpine Gaul, 433; pro- 
vincial system begun, 435; Second 
Punic War, 436 ff.; Hannibal in 
Italy, 439; Cannae, 442; fidelity of 
Latins and Italians, 443 ; grandeur in 
disaster, 444 ; Hannibal at the gates, 
449 ; invasion of Africa and victory, 
454 ; Rome mistress of the West, 455 ; 
Rome in Spain, 456-457; Third 
Punic War, 459 ff. ; destroys Car- 
thage, wins Africa, 462 ; Rome in 
the East, 463 ff. ; First Macedonian 



664 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



War, 463; Second, 464; Syrian War, 
465 ; protectorates become provinces, 
466-469; sole Great Power, 474 ; two 
halves of Roman world, 475; new 
strife of classes, 476 ff . ; industrial 
and moral decline after Punic wars, 
480-483; decay of yeomanry, 480, 
488-492; a new capitalism, 481: 
trade monopolies, 482; "money 
power " and the government, 483 ; 
rise of luxury, 484; a proletariat, 
492 ; decay of the constitution, 493- 
495 ; the evils in Italy, 496-497 ; evils 
in the provinces, 498-503; slavery, 
504, 505 ; Cato's and Scipio's attempts 
at reform, 506; the Gracchi, 507- 
519; work overthrown, 519; new 
character of Roman history, bio- 
graphical, 520 ; Jugurthine War, 521- 
522 ; Marius saves from Cimbri, 523- 
524; disorders and Social War, 
525-527; Italy enters Roman state, 
527; Marius and Sulla, 528 ff. ; 
Marian massacres, 530; Sulla in 
East, 532; return, civil war, 533; 
Sullan massacres, 534 ; restores sen- 
atorial rule, 535; Pompey and 
Caesar, 537 ff. ; Pompey 's leadership, 
538-542; expansion in East, 542; 
new leaders, 543; Catiline, 545 ; rise 
of Caesar; 544-549; expansion in 
West, 547-549 ; founding the Empire, 
549 ff. See Roman Empire. 

Borne, city under the Empire, 
fire, 579; government, 596; indus- 
tries, 611, 614; " patriarchate," 681, 
775-777 ; sacked by West Goths, 714 ; 
by Vandals, 718, 726 ; by East Goths, 
736. 

Rom'ti-lus, 335. 

Romulus Au-giis'tu-lus, 726. 

Roncesvalles (rons-val'), 789, note. 
Map after p. 630. 

Ro-set'ta stone, 5. 

Rubicon, 553. Map after p. 302. 

Sa'bines, 338. Map after p. 302. 
Sa-gun'tum, 438. Map after p. 372. 
Sa'is, map, p. 16. 
Sai'a-mis. Athenian war for, 140; 



battle of, 178-180; significance of. 
183. Maps after pp. 94, 98, and on 
p. 180. 

Sai'lust, 625. 

Sa-ma'ri-a, map, p. 77. 

Sam'nites, map after p. 302. 

Sa'mos, 156, 195. Maps after pp. 94, 
98, etc. 

Samson, 61. 

Samuel, 61. 

Sa'por, 644. 

Sappho (saf'o), 155. 

Saracens, 774, note. 

Sardinia, map after p. 132. 

Sar'dis, 77 ; burned in Ionian Revolt, 
164. Maps after pp. 82, 84. 

Sar'gon the Elder, 38. 

Sar'g-on, of Assyria, 40. 

Sas-san'i-dae, the, 648. 

Satraps, introduced by Assyrians, 
40 ; adopted by Persia, 76. 

Saturn, 341. 

Saul, 62. 

Saxons, in Britain, 720 (map after 
p. 594) ; and Charlemagne, 788. 

Schliemann (shle'miin) , life of, 89 ; 
disco veries.of, 90, 91 ; importance, 92. 

Schools, in Age of Pericles, 240 ; in 
Roman Republic, 413; in Empire, 
620 ; in Empire of Charlemagne, 800. 

Science, Egyptian, 23; Chaldean, 49; 
early Greek, related to philosophy, 
156; in the age of Pericles still 
bound up with philosophy, 225 ; lack 
of method of experiment, 230 ; Alex- 
andrian Age, 320 ; Roman, under the 
Republic, 414; under the Empire, 
decline' after 2d century, 700, 703, 
704; in "Dark Ages," 750-751. 

Scipio (P. Cornelius Scipio Africa- 
nus),447,454. 

Scipio Africanus the Younger, 
462, 465, note, 493 ; fails at reform, 
506. 

Scipio Asiaticus, 465, note. 

Sculpture, Egyptian, 21; Chaldean, 
52; Assyrian, 52; Oriental con- 
trasted with European, 80; Greek, 
154, 218-220; in Graeco-Oriental 
world. 314. See Relief sculpture. 



INDEX 



665 



The references are to sections. 



Scy'ros, 260. Maps after pp. 94, 98. 

Sc^th'i-ans, in Assyria, 41 ; repulsed 
by Persians, 75, 

Se-ges'ta, 195. Map after p. 132. 

Se-leu'ci-dae, rulers of the family of 
Seleucus. 

Se-leu'cus, general of Alexander, 
and king of Syria, 292. 

Semites, 36. 

Semitic language, 36. 

Sen-naeh'e-rib, 40. 

Sep'tu-a-gint, 319. 

Serfdom, in Roman Empire, 694. 

Ser-to'ri-us, 530, 531, 539, 640. 

Ser'vi-us Tul'li-us, 335. 

Se-ve'rus, Alexander, 643. 

Se-ve'rus, Sep-tlm'i-us, 641. 

Shaft, use in architecture, 154. 

" Shaking off of Burdens," 141. 

"Shore," the, party in Athens, 145. 

Sicily, Greek colonies in, 122; Car- 
thaginian War in, 159, 160; Athe- 
nian disaster in, 248 ; and the Punic 
Wars, 422, 427, 429, 446. 

Sicyon (sish'i-on) and Aratus, 302. 
Maps after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

Si'don, 55. Map after id. 12. 

SIm'i-lis, 631. 

Si-mon'i-des, 155. 

Slavery, Egyptian, 15; Greek, in 
Sparta, 129; in Athens, 205, 230, 
237; Roman, under Republic after 
Punic Wars, 504, 505 ; under Em- 
pire, milder, 635 ; a cause of decline 
of population, 650. See Serfdom. 

Slavs, 721, 735. 

Social War, the, 526, 527. 

Soc'ra-teg, the man, 226 ; teachings, 
225 ; on immortality, 227. 

Sog-di-a'na, map after p. 82. 

Soissons (swa-son'), battle of, 740. 
Map after p. 608. 

Solomon, 63, 64, 76, note. 

So'lon, and a priest of Sais, 23; and 
overthrow of Eupatrids, 140-144. 

Sophists, 225. 

Soph'o-cles, 221. 

Sparta, leading Dorian city, 120; 
kings in, 128; early history, 127; 
government, 128; classes of people 



in Laconia, 129; "Spartan train- 
ing," 130; and Persian Wars, 161, 
162, 164, 167, 172 ff . ; delays and 
losses thereby, 167, 175, 176, 181; 
strife with Athens, 196-201 ; Messe- 
nian revolt, 197 ; Peloponnesian War, 
241-251 ; supremacy in Greece, 253- 
263; Leuctra, 263; and Thebes, 265- 
267; decay and need of social re- 
form, 306; Agis and Cleoraenes, 
307-308; and Achaean League, 309; 
sacked by Goths, 648, 713. Maps 
after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

Spar'ta-cus, 505. 

Sphinx, 21. 

State, definition, 11, note. 

Stephen, Pope, and Pippin, 783. 

Stin-cho, 726. 

Stoics, 317. 

Stone Age, the, 1, 2, 3; in Egypt, 
10; in Aegean islands, 95. 

Stra'bo, 628. 

Strassbiirg, battle of, Julian's, 678; 
Clevis', 740, 741. Map after p. 576. 

Strom'bo-ll, 733. 

Sulla, 522, 526, 528-536. 

Sul-pl'ci-us, 528, 529. 

Susa, map after p. 84. 

Syracuse, 248. Map after p. 132. 

Syria, 7. Map after p. 12, and on 
p. 55. Kingdom of Syria (in Graeco- 
Roman world), 292; Roman con- 
quest, 465 ff. ; and the Jews, 467. 

Tacl-tus, Emperor, 646, note. 

Tacitus, historian, 627 ; quoted fre- 
quently; on Teutons, 707, 709. 

Tal'mud, the, 49 and note. 

Tan'a-gra, battle of, 200. Map after 
p. 98. 

Ta-rSn'tum, 122. Map after p. 132. 

Tar'quin the First, 335. 

Tarquin the Proud, 335. 

Tar'qulnl-us (LU'ci-us Tarquinius 
Col-la-ti'nus), 350. 

Tar'shish, 55. 

Tar'tar-us, 112. 

Tar-tes'sus, 55. 

Taurus Mountains. Maps, pp. 45^ 
55. 



666 



INDEX 

The references are to sections. 



Taxation, Egyptian, 12, 15 ; Hebrew, 
64; Athenian, 195; Roman, 500; 
imperial, 615; in later Empire, 691, 
696 ; in Empire of Charlemagne, 798. 

Tel'lus, 341. 

T§m'pe,Valeof,174. Map after p. 94. 

Temple of Solomon, 63. 

Ten Thousand, march of the, 257. 

Terence, 624. 

Ter'ml-nus, god of bounds, 341. 

T6r-tiil'li-an, 651. 

Tes'try, battle of, 766. 

Teu'to-berg, battle of, 577, 605. Map 
after p. 488. 

Teu-to'nes, 523, 524. 

Teutonic Assembly, 709; affected 
by conquests, 761, c. 

Teutonic contributions to Eu- 
rope, 762. 

Teutonic kingship, 761. 

Teutonic Law, 760. 

Teutons, see Germans. 

Tha'les, 156, 164. 

Thap'pus, 555. Map after p. 372. 

Tha'sos, 196. Map after p. 94. 

Theaters, Greek, 222 ; of Dionysus at 
Athens, 223; Pericles' policy as to, 
223. 

Thebes, in Egypt, 11. Map on p. 16. 

Thebes, in Greece, limited leadership 
in Boeotia, 132 ; at war with Athens, 
161 ; refuses to attend Congress at 
Corinth, 161 ; welcomes Xerxes, 176 ; 
war with Sparta, 259; Democracy 
in, 262; Leuctra, 263; supremacy, 
264-267 ; Epaminondas, 264 ; over- 
throw, 267 ; destroyed by Alexander, 
277. Maps after pp. 94, 98, etc. 

The-mls'to-cles, 170, 177, 178, 180, 
184, 185, 186, 197. 

The-6c'ri-tus, 313. 

The-6d'o-ric, East Goth, 729-733. 

Theodoric, Visigoth, 722. 

The-o-do'si-an Code, the, 737. 

The-o-do' si-US I, 680. 

Theodosius II, 726. 

The-6g'o-ny, 155. 

Ther-mop'y-lae, 173,174; battle of , 
176, 177. Maps after pp. 94, 98. 

Ther-si'tes, 107. 



The'seus, 100, 111, note. 
Thes'pis, 146, 155, 221. 
Th§s-sa-lo-ni'ca, map after p. 586. 
Thessaly, map after p. 94. 
Thirty Years' Truce, the, between 

Athens and Sparta, 202. 
TAor', 708. 
Thrace, part of Persian Empire, 73, 

165 ; colonized by Chalcis, 122 ; 

changing bounds, 122, note ; Athe- 
nian colonies in, 148. Maps after 

pp. 84, 132. 
Thrasybulus (thras-i-boo'lus) , 256. 
Thucydides (thoo-cid'i-dez) , 224 ; 

quoted, 129, 184, 299. 
Thu-rin'g-i-a, map after p. 608. 
Thutmosis III (thoo-mo'sis) , 30. 
Tiber, commerce of early, 333. Map 

after p. 132. 
Tl-be'ri-us, 576, 594, 614. 
Ti-ci'nus, battle of, 440. Map after 

p. 302. 
TIg'lath-Pi-le'ser I, 40. 
Tiglath-Pileser III, 40. 
Tigris-Euphrates states, 34-53 ; 

Alexander in, 278. 
Tigris River, 34. Maps after pp. 12, 

82, etc. 
Ti'tus, 583. 
To-gar'mah, 55. 
To'tem-ism, Egyptian, 24. 
T6t'i-la, 736. 

Tou-louse', 620. Map after p. 576. 
Tours (toor), battle of, 773. Map 

after p. 608. 
Tra'jan, 586, 598. 
Tras-i-me'ne, battle of, 440. Map 

after p. 302. 
Tre'bi-a, battle of, 440. Map after 

p. 302. 
Trib u-nic'i-an power, the, 557. 
Tributary state, defined, 11, note. 
Trier, 618. Map after p. 586. 
Tri'glyph, 155. 
Tri'reme, 200, note. 
Tri-um'vi-rate, First, 540 ff . ; Second. 

565 ff. 
Triv'i-um, the, 619. 
Troy, story of siege of, 87 ; excava* 

tions at, 90. Map after p. 132. 



INDEX 



667 



The references are to sections. 



Tu'bal, 55. 

Tu-ra'ni-ans, 721. 

" Twelve Tables," laws of tlie, 362, 

364 ; Roman textbook, 413. 
" Twilight of the Gods," 707. 
Tyrants, Greek, 125, 126; in Athens, 

146, 147 ; set up by Persia in Ionia, 

164; set up by Macedonia, 296; in 

early Rome, 349, 350. 
Tyre, 55, 57; siege of, 277. Maps after 

pp. 12, 132. 
Tyr-r/ien'i-an Sea, map after p. 302. 
Tyr-tae'us, 155. 

Urm-as, 702. 

Ul'pi-an, 632, 637, 643. 

Universities, origin, 319; in Alex- 
andrian Age, 319 ; in Roman Empire, 
319. 

Ur, in Chaldea, 37, 38. Map after p. 
12. 

U'ti-ca, founded by Phoenicians, 56; 
capital of Roman Africa, 390. Map 
after p. 132. 

Va'lens, 679; and Visigoths, 713. 
Va-len-tln'i-an I, 679. 
Valentinian II, 679. 
Valentinian III, 726 ; and the papacy, 

775. 
Va-le'ri-an, Emperor, 64'!. 
Va-le'ri-us, M., 362. 
Valerius, Pub-llc'o-la, 352. 
Vandals, 715, 716, 718. 
Vaph'i-o cups, the, illustration on 

p. 108. 
Varro, consul, 444. 
Varro, historian, 625. 
Va'rus, 605. 
Ve'ii, 374. Map, p. 305. 
Ve-ne'ti, map, p. 332. 
Venice, founded, 724. 
Ve'nus, 111, 341. 
Ver'den, Massacre of, 788. 
Ves-pa-si-an (Fla'vi-us Ves-pa-si-a'- 

nus),580, 587. 
V§s'-ta, 341. 
Vestal Virgrins, 341. 



Virg-il, 626. 

Virg-inia. story of, 362. 

Vir-i-a'thus, 456. 

Vis'i-goths, 679, 712-714, map after 

p. 576; in Spain, 715; 
Vi-tel'li-us, 580. 
Vol'scl-ans, 331. Map, p. 305. 
Vulcan, 111. 
Vul'gate, the, 702. 

Wars of the Succession, 287. 

Werg-eld (v6r'g61t), 760. 

Wheat, prehistoric cultivation, 3, c; 
native to Euphrates district, 55. 
See Agric^dture. 

Whit'by, map after p. 630. 

Wingless Victory, temple of, 218; 
illustration, p. 159. 

Wo'den, 708. 

Woman, position of, in Egypt, 16; in 
Chaldea and Assyria, 45; in the 
court of King Minos, 96; in early 
Greece, 230; in Sparta, 130; in 
Athens, 230, 233, 235, 238, 239; in 
early Rome, 345 ; in Roman Empire, 
632 ; in the early church, 654 ; among 
the Teutons, 707. 

"Works and Days," of Hesiod, 
155. 

Writing-, stages in invention, 3, e. 
See Alphabet, Hieroglyphs, Cunei- 
form. 

Xe-noph'anes, 156. 
Xen'o-phon, 224, 257. 
Xerx'es, 169, 171, 178, 181. 
Xuthus (zoo'thus), 116, h. 

York, map after p. 544. 

Za,'vciB,, battle of, 454. Map aftb:^ 

p. 364. 
Zend A-v§s'ta, 78. 
Ze'no, Emperor, 728. 
Zeno the Stoic, 317. 
Ze-no'bi-a, 646. 
Zeus, 111. 
Zeux'is, 31i. 
Zo-ro-as'ter 78. 



